Watering cans in hand, men and women move back and forth between the wells and water storage tanks and the crops they’re watering: carrots, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and potatoes, as well as fruit trees like palm, coconut, papaya and banana trees.

Growers like Ahmadou Sene are working tirelessly to produce vegetables in and around the Senegalese capital. Sene, in his forties, has a one-hectare plot. For three months of the year, he has a dozen young people to hoe and weed the garden, and for four months a group of 20 women work to harvest and sell his produce.

“Vegetables make up more than 80 percent of my crops,” he said, gesturing towards his garden. He cultivates his field year round, and harvests nearly 12 tonnes of vegetables each quarter.

According to the 2011 census conducted by the Regional Office for Statistics and Demographics (SRSD), some 3,200 people work in horticulture in the Dakar region, spread across 113 production sites.

Around 6,000 people work in horticulture, which supports more than 40,000 people in the capital, and a million people across the country.

The SRSD’s report for last October showed that between 2010 and 2011, the cultivated area in the Dakar region grew from 5,098 hectares to 8,700 hectares. Horticultural production in the area rose from 750,000 to 860,000 tonnes during the same period. This year, the area being cultivated in and around Dakar is 11,300 hectares, and production, accounting for all crops, is estimated at 1,780,000 tonnes.

According to the same report, urban agriculture in the Dakar region alone generated 450 million dollars in 2011, supplying 45 percent of the city’s food supply.

But while urban farming is growing, farmers are facing difficulties linked to access to land, the marketing of vegetables, the recycling of water for irrigation, and access to financing.

Even as the cultivated area is growing, some farmers are struggling to find land to expand their operations.

“In 2010, I had an 800 square metre field. I was able to turn a profit of 600,000 CFA (about 1,200 dollars). But this year, I’ve only got 350 square metres to farm, because the government has taken over a large portion of my land for a dam to hold water,” said Cheikh Mor Ndiaye, a grower at Cambérène, one of the sprawling suburbs on the outskirts of the capital.

The president of the administrative council of the Federated Cooperative of Horticulturalists of Senegal (CFAHS), Cheikh Ngane, told IPS that while garden farming provides livelihoods for a good number of Senegalese, it is undermined by the recurring problem of access to land.

“Most horticulturalists are working with land that belongs to the state. To develop horticulture, it’s important to resolve the problem of land,” he said, adding that the problem is aggravated by competing claims from developers working on residential housing developments.

The issue of land ownership can also lead to problems obtaining credit. “For example, if someone has their own plot, assigned to them by the rural community, bankers are not confident when they ask for a loan,” said Cheikh Ngane.

Ababacar Sy Gaye, director of horticulture at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Infrastructure, said “We have outlined measures to ensure the promotion of horticultural crops, particularly with regard to inputs and good agricultural practices.”

His department is responsible for implementing the national policy for development of horticultural production.

Despite these difficulties, the farmers are passionate about their work — no surprise, given the profitability of market gardening. “With my little plot, I put away at least 400,000 francs per year (around 800 dollars) after covering costs like buying inputs,” said Cheikh Mor.

According to Jean-Marie Sambou, a grower at Patte d’Oie, wholesalers have some advantages in buying their produce when compared to retailers. “We sell a kilo of onions to the wholesalers at 150 CFA, and they later re-sell this to retailers at 250 francs or more, and in the market, the same kilo sells for 350 CFA (68 U.S. cents),” he said.

“Buyers from hotel and restaurant kitchens in Dakar regularly come out to my field to buy produce,” Ahmadou told IPS. “On average, I sell three tonnes of vegetables (every quarter) to women who resell them in local markets. I earn one million CFA francs per year after the sale of my produce and paying out the people who work for me.”

Increased harvests in the northern Senegalese community of Léona provide evidence of the benefits of multifaceted support for agriculture. But as their yields grow, farmers are calling for consistent policy to protect markets for their crops. Since 2008, the village of Potou has been the site of a multi-sector poverty eradication effort, one of 12 “Millennium Village” sites found in hunger hotspots in ten countries across Africa.

Each site was chosen to represent a different Sub-Saharan African agro-ecological zone, to demonstrate how a combination of local knowledge and a holistic, science-based approach could achieve the Millennium Development Goal of reducing extreme poverty and hunger by half – even in the most challenging locations. (The MDGs are a series of development and anti-poverty targets agreed by U.N. member states in 2000.) 

The project was championed by economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, and has received support from a wide range of sources including U.N. agencies, transnational chemical and agriculture corporations, individuals and both host and donor governments.

The Millennium Village project aims to reduce extreme poverty and hunger by half, providing farmers with high-yielding seeds, fertiliser and irrigation. But the project is not narrowly focused on support for agriculture.

“People in our rural community now have access to clean water and solar energy which not only lights up our homes, but supports the irrigation of around 800 of the 1,000 hectares devoted to growing onions in this region,” said Serigne Abdou Boye, vice president of the National Horticulturalists Association of Senegal.

The project has also added four new health facilities in Léona, at which the community’s 31,000 residents can get free health care. Sixty new classrooms are planned as well, in order to eliminate the temporary structures that many of the district’s school children have had to study in.

Farmers in Léona grow a variety of crops, including tomatoes, okra, peppers and carrots, but El Hadj Mamadou Bâ, president of this rural commune, said that onion producers have been the biggest beneficiaries of the Millennium Village project.

“Last year, I harvested less than 20 tonnes of onions from one hectare. This year, I’ve got two irrigated hectares planted with onions, and thanks to project support in the form of onion seeds, I think I’ll manage a record crop of 80 tonnes,” he told IPS.

Another onion farmer, Idrissa Diallo, told IPS that using better seed, irrigation and organic fertiliser made from cow dung, more than 60,000 tonnes of onions were harvested during the 2012-2011 growing season, significantly higher than the 45,000 tonnes produced in 2009-2010.

“Before the project, we needed so many workers to irrigate the fields, but our output didn’t measure up. We were harvesting less than 20 tonnes per hectare, but thanks to this project, we sometimes manage as much as 70 tonnes per hectare,” said Idrissa Diallo, an onion producer in Potou.

During a visit in mid-July, Bouri Sanhouidi, the resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme in Dakar, said the new irrigation system gives the community the resources to cultivate seeds. He called on U.N. agencies to support the project.

During the growing season from April to November each year, Potou’s population – the village is home to roughly 3,000 of the 31,000 residents of the greater Léona area, according to the last census – is supplemented by dozens of migrant farm workers from neighbouring countries.

Ahmadou Konté, from Guinea, told IPS he has been coming to work here since 2008. He said he returns home at the end of each year having earned around 360 dollars.

Bâ added that a number of cooperatives operating in Léona have created jobs for 102 youth who were deported as undocumented migrants from Spain in 2005.

The community’s success has even attracted people from elsewhere to move to the area, but there are some unresolved challenges.

Producers complain that they are isolated by the region’s poor roads. They also say that fertiliser and seed were delivered too late in the season for maximum effect – and that the cost of these inputs is too high.

“Yes, we’ve been provided with seed and fertiliser by the project, but the prices of these are a bit high. We would have liked additional support from the government. Five hundred grams of seed costs 21,000 CFA (42 dollars), and a 50-kilo sack of fertiliser 12,000 CFA (24 dollars). That’s expensive for us,” Yoro Ba told IPS.

There is also discontent over pricing of onions, Fatoumata Dia Sy, regional director for the National Rural Advisory Service in Louga, north of the country, told IPS.

“The price of onions has been set by an agreement between the government and producers,” she said. Producers are to receive the equivalent of 24 cents U.S. per kilo from intermediaries who are entitled to sell the onions on at 33 cents a kilo to retailers who will in turn sell them to consumers at 50 cents a kilo.

Grower Moussa Sow also condemned the lifting of a ban on onion imports that the government had imposed from February until the end of August. “The re-authorisation of onion imports is a challenge. It risks killing off production in this area,” he said, fearing a slump in sales of local production if the market is flooded with imports.

“We have taken out bank loans, and now we are unable to sell our crop, thanks to the market,” Sow said.

Léona president Mamadou Bâ called for the import ban to be extended to three years.

The Senegalese prime minister, Abdoul Mbaye, visited the project in July, hailing it as an “applied model of development.” He stressed the need for the government to work to make it sustainable and extend it to other rural areas. Careful attention to farmers’ concerns over market conditions might be a good place to start.

A new power plant in the eastern Senegalese village of Kalom is generating more than just electricity. Powered by agricultural waste, the station has lit up homes, lightened women’s domestic burdens and even put a little money in some residents’ pockets.

The 32 kilowatt generator, which uses groundnut shells and dried millet stalks for fuel, was built with 245,000 dollars of funding from DEG (the German Investment Corporation) and German municipal power company Stadtwerke Mainz.

The local midwife, Ami Mbaye, is delighted to have electric lights in the village. She used to rely on storm lanterns when attending a birth at night, but with power in the health centre, it’s much easier to care for patients.

“It wasn’t easy for us to work at night. Now we don’t have any problems. But we do need the government to install some additional equipment to make us more effective,” she told IPS.

“Everyone used to pay 100 CFA francs per device to charge our cellphone batteries,” said Abdoulaye Faye, a teacher in Kalom. “We would give them to a young guy who would take them to the closest town, Fatick, more than 20 kilometres away. Then you had to wait a week to get them back. Now we just charge them at home.”

Faye said the farm residue that was previously useless has become a source of income. “You get paid at least 125 CFA francs per kilo, depending on the quality of the waste – so collecting waste is keeping people busy, especially young people. I do it sometimes too.”

Almami N’Diaye, who runs the plant, says that to begin with, it will generate only 15 percent of its total capacity.

“To light up the village for a week, we need three tonnes of shells and millet chaff. We’re not lacking in fuel because the villagers have the habit of saving these residues (after the harvest),” he told IPS.

François Sène, a farmer from the village, told IPS that since the power plant started working, he and his family have been going out every day looking for fuel for the plant.

“You can earn 5,000 CFA (around 9.50 dollars) a day. So after we finish on our own farm, I go out with my two wives and five sons to see what farm waste we can find before coming home. It’s a blessing to earn a little money like this…”

Wolla Ndiaye, a senator and resident of the village, said that each house pays for its consumption, depending on the number of bulbs and electrical appliances it uses, and the price per kilowatt-hour is 250 CFA (around 47 cents).

“All 1,300 residents living on the village’s 115 stands (lots) are connected to the grid, except for three houses that are still under construction. And more than 80 percent of the power generated is not (yet) being used.”

But Ndiaye explained that in order to cover the monthly operating costs of the plant – which vary between 95 and 115 dollars – it will be important for the 15 other villages in the surrounding area to be connected to the power station.

During a visit to Kalom, the Senegalese minister for energy and mines, Aly Ngouille Ndiaye, promised to look into how the plant can be linked to adjoining areas. He promised to take up the question of transmission to neighbouring villages with the Senegalese Agency for Rural Electrification.

“Not only do you have the right to enjoy electricity just like people in the city,” the minister told villagers,” but as someone with rural roots myself, I know how lacking electricity can hinder development.”

According to Alioune Diouf, head of monitoring for the National Biogas Programme at the energy ministry, the government initiated the programme in Senegal in 2006, with the objective of ensuring the sustainable supply of peri-urban and rural households with energy for lighting and cooking.

“Waste-based electricity generation projects were also launched in 2008 in the Kaolack, Fatick, Ziguinchor and Kolda regions,” said Diouf. He told IPS that 325 biodigesters were set up in these regions in the western and southern parts of the country between June 2010 and mid-2012.

“We envisage (building) around 8,000 between now and 2013,” said Diouf.

Like many other young Senegalese, Pape Mokhtar Diallo long dreamed of escaping his rural home in northern Senegal for a better life. Three times he tried and failed to go overseas. But the establishment of an agricultural cooperative here in the village of Boyinadji has put another dream within his grasp. The 25-year-old has a job now, a humble one that doesn’t pay well, but he feels he is a part of an initiative that has caused him and other young people here to imagine a future working the land.

“I work as the security guard for the cooperative’s store. I’m earning 25,000 CFA (50 dollars) per month; and more than that, I’m part of a cooperative. I’m not thinking about leaving any more,” he told IPS.

The cooperative he’s speaking of is called a SIPA – a Société intensification de la Production Agricole – an initiative under Senegal’s national programme for investment in agriculture.

Boyinadji’s SIPA was set up in 2010, with 400,000 dollars of financial support from the government and partner institutions like the West African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). It’s one of a set of agricultural cooperatives nationwide intended to help young men and women who might otherwise join the exodus from rural areas to organise themselves into coops and earn a living.

Thirty hectares were assigned to 150 smallholders who set about growing a variety of crops for sale, as well as vegetables for their own consumption.

“Last year, we produced eight tonnes of watermelon, 12 tonnes of maize and three tonnes of groundnuts… After selling our harvest and paying off our creditors, the cooperative was able to earn two million CFA francs (around 4,000 dollars),” said Mamoudou Thiam, the Boyinadji SIPA’s manager.

He said he hoped that 2012 would be even better, with plans in place to also grow tomatoes, cabbage, okra, peppers and lettuce.

Over the past two years, the cooperative has extensively developed the land. Its lush green fields are fenced off, cleared using tractors, and irrigated by a sprinkler system supplied by motorised pumps drawing water from a borehole.

Thiam says the project is providing jobs for village youth. “Two pump operators, a manager and a security guard have been chosen. At the moment, we can’t pay them a great salary, but 25,000 CFA a month… at least they’re earning something,” he said.

IPS met Aïssatou Dia at work with a hoe in the coop’s fields. She explained that in addition to being a member of the SIPA, she is also the leader of another agricultural association in the village.

“We formed an association of women,” the 25-year-old said, “and each of us has got a plot where we grow okra, melons and watermelon to earn income, improve nutrition for our families and create jobs at the local level. Last year, I earned 80,000 CFA (160 dollars) from the sale of our produce. And beyond that, I grew a lot for my own use,” she said.

Abdoulaye Baldé, another member of the SIPA coop, agreed that the project had enabled youth to support themselves and stay in the countryside, but said that for the project to be sustained, it would need government support to commercialise and build up production capacity.

“We want to work the land. But we’ll need support to help us turn a profit. Right now, we need electricity to run the borehole pump, and increase our production,” he told IPS.

“This would allow us to save on money we’re using to buy fuel. I think the well could be equipped with solar panels. This would also be another revolution, if they would help us to strengthen certain capacities of our farmers,” Baldé said.

According to Abdoulaye Diakité, from the National Agency for Rural and Agricultural Extension Services, in order to develop agriculture in this region, it is vital to carry out an inventory of land available for cultivation, and then to determine what crops are appropriate.

“What Senegal is lacking is an agriculture project worthy of the name, one with precise goals and objectives,” he said.

Eighty-odd kilometres outside Dakar, the Senegalese capital, solar power and an irrigation scheme are transforming a traditional village into what the government hopes will be a model for the future of the countryside.

The project, in Mbackombel, a settlement of a little more than a thousand inhabitants, has strengthened farming and herding activities with sound water management strategies, as well as made the village self-sufficiency in energy. The village – whose name means “baobab with delicious fruit” in Sérère, a local language – is enjoying greater food security and incomes, improved protection of the environment, and a wealth of new opportunities for young people.

According to Demba Mamadou Ba, the director of Senegal’s National Agency for Eco-villages, the concept being put into practice here will bring the benefits of modern life to even the smallest village. Each eco-village represents an investment of a million dollars.

Mbackombel’s photovoltaic panels are used for much more than providing lighting to its 35 compounds. They also provide electricity for a computer laboratory and library at the village school, which runs from kindergarten through to the end of primary school: all part of reducing the digital divide and connecting Mbackombel with the rest of the world via the internet.

Solar panels also supply power to run a mill and pump water from a borehole for livestock and irrigated gardens and water livestock. Village residents are growing millet, sorghum, groundnuts and more.

“We also practice aquaculture. Currently, we only have juvenile hatchlings in our ponds, but beyond raising fish for food, we hope to make a profit from this,” said the village chief, Robert Birame Ndour.

“So many of our youth had left for the big city,” he continued, “now they have returned to the village. They’ve all found jobs here. Some are growing vegetables, while others are raising livestock or working as masons.”

Alouise Thiaw, 25, agrees that the rural exodus that drains young people from Senegal’s countryside has been reversed in Mbackombel as income-generating activities linked to the eco-village project take root.

“I was apprenticed to a mason in Dakar, but since this project was launched, I’ve returned to make a living here. This building, for example, was built by us, the youth… I work for the project managers here, and earn 55,000 CFA francs (around 106 dollars) a month,” he told IPS.

He said when there’s no construction work, he keeps busy clearing out the dam which supplies water for gardening and livestock.

According to the Senegalese Minister for Ecology, Ali Haidar, the eco-village project was launched in 2008 with 4.5 million dollars in finance from the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Development Programme. The objective is the effective application of a model of innovative development for the participatory, sustainable development of rural areas like Mbackombel.

Bachir Camara, president of the monitoring council for the national eco-village agency, said the country planned to create 14,000 eco-villages by 2020, within a broad framework of fighting against poverty.

“This programme is initiated/carried out in partnership with the Africa Enterprise Development Agency. Drawing on the expertise of 15 leaders from the business community in France, the eco-villages are undeniably a means to attaining the Millennium Development Goals,” he told IPS.

“The programme also calls for the promotion of self-sufficiency of eco-villages in terms of energy, water and wooded areas, ensuring year-round availability of fruit, of wood for construction, furniture, and domestic energy. This programme signals the entry of Senegal into the ecological era of villages of the future, finding solutions to the causes of climate change, and adapting to it,” Haidar said.

He stressed that an ambitious programme of reforestation, involving the planting of a million saplings in each eco-village to restore the productive capacity of the land, as well as the promotion of green jobs and drawing youth back to the eco-villages are among the objectives being achieved at Mbackombel.

Mamadou Kane, representing the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Senegal and Gambia, said that IFAD supports the eco-village initiative. In his view, the project is a way of experimenting with organic agriculture and creates the possibility for people to become self-sufficient in terms of their own food.

IFAD has supported agricultural development in Senegal for several years. “Village development is at the heart of our concerns and is a good thing which can bring development to Mbackombel,” Kane told IPS.

Cashew nut growers in the southern Senegalese region of Casamance are complaining bitterly that intermediaries are cutting them out of a fair share of the profits.

The Casamance region produced 40 million dollars worth of cashews in 2011 – 40,000 tonnes – and employed more than 220,000 people, according to figures from the Chamber of Commerce in Ziguinchor, the regional capital.

But as of April this year, production stood at only 8,000 tonnes, more than 15,000 tonnes less than at the same point last year, says Ismaëla Diémé, the president of the Casamance Agricultural Producers’ Cooperative. The sharp drop has been attributed to unfavourable growing conditions, a decrease in rainfall, conflict in Casamance – where anti-personnel mines have been laid on farms – and producers discouraged by low prices.

Almost all of Senegal’s cashew harvest – gathered between April and June as the dry season draws to a close – is sold on in the form of unprocessed nuts for export. Large-scale Indian buyers come to the capital, Dakar, and contract local traders to actually purchase cashews; these traders in turn dispatch freelance agents to the often remote villages where farmers have nuts for sale.

Producers told IPS they faced numerous obstacles with respect to storage and transporting their crop from their villages to urban centres. They also said traders offered them laughably low prices for cashews, and argued that they were exploited by intermediaries who depress prices only to resell the nuts for far more to Indian exporters.

Idrissa Diatta, a farmer from Diattacounda, some 80 kilometres from Ziguinchor, said traders offer the equivalent of 60 U.S. cents per kilo at the farm gate, but are reselling it to exporters for nearly three times more, around 1.70 dollars.

He believes the best way to overcome this is to deal directly with the Indians, but says the middlemen have blocked all attempts so far. “The Indians will never come to see us here. They pass the work on to intermediaries. We’re thinking of getting ourselves organised and sending a delegation to the buyers in Dakar (the Senegalese capital) to discuss things,” he said.

Abdoulaye Diatta, another planter, says traders sometimes claim prices are low because supply exceeds demand, or foreign currency exchange rates are unfavourable. “But if the dollar exchange rate has shifted, or there’s really an oversupply, then we wouldn’t see a single cashew nut plucked from the bush. But no: every nut’s sold. Right now, they’re trying to swap us a sack of rice for two sacks of cashews: it’s ridiculous.”

But Jean-Marie Badji, one of the much-maligned middlemen, says the price of unprocessed cashews varies according to changes in the world market, and traders are trying to make ends meet, not trying to dupe growers.

“Look, we have to travel out to these villages to collect cashews. The roads are in terrible condition, and the truckers charge us heavily to transport goods over them. And we’re talking about completely isolated villages. If we pay more than 250 or 300 CFA (less than a dollar), we risk going bankrupt,” he told IPS.

Badji says that sometimes it is growers themselves who undercut prices. “In the first week of April, we were out in a village called Koundump. We came across a producer who hadn’t sold his nuts because of the utter isolation of the place. When he saw us, he offered us his entire stock for 200 CFA per kilo. I couldn’t refuse it,” he said.

Elimane Dramé, who employs 43 people at a facility that can process 250 tonnes of cashew nuts a year, says the sector has struggled to access operating capital. He says banks are typically willing to loan them only a third of what they need, causing delays in payment and leaving small producers in difficulty.

He told IPS that producers’ need for financing is seasonal. A farmer needs money to put up a storehouse immediately to safely hold the incoming harvest, but the bank often refuses to loan him money and he may be forced to sell hastily, reducing his ability to negotiate prices from a position of strength.

Ibra Fall, who works in the office of the governor of Ziguinchor, has a different take. He says producers are also in difficulty because they fail to fully exploit their resource locally.

“With local processing capacity able to handle less than five percent of the harvest, the only alternative for producers is to sell unprocessed nuts to exporters – with no real power to negotiate. Also, the cashew apples are falling unused beneath the trees, with only a small amount used to make cashew wine.”

Diémé with the Casamance Agricultural Producers’ Cooperative told IPS the problems facing producers ultimately stem from a lack of coordination that prevents them from defending their interests against those of others in the value chain.

“Because we are so poorly organised that it’s hard for a partner, no matter who it is, to meet us halfway, and because we have not improved our growing techniques, our yields. Basically, we don’t inspire confidence.”

Darou Ndoye is the sort of village young people cannot wait to leave in search of better prospects in the city or across the seas in Europe. But 40 youth working on 10 hectares of a 20-heactre farm here in western Senegal show how a little support goes a long way in creating rewarding work in rural Senegal.

The farm, which was rehabilitated in 2008 as part of the government’s Return to Agriculture programme (REVA), boasts a borehole with a diesel pump that feeds a sprinkler network covering 10 hectares; a mini pivot system extends irrigation to a further five hectares.

The Return to Agriculture programme was established in 2006, with the aim of fighting food insecurity and unemployment by promoting private enterprise in agriculture.

Reducing out-migration from rural to urban areas within Senegal, as well as clandestine emigration to Europe was an explicit part of the plan, which has received substantial funding from the Spanish and Moroccan governments as well as from Senegal’s own budget.

The young farmers are divided into two Economic Interest Groups – a form of collective – each producing different vegetables.

“We grow cabbages, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers and carrots,” said Mbaye Ndiaye, 34, president of the two groups. He said the farm’s produce is sold in local markets as well as in neighbouring countries like Mali and Gambia.

The 40 people working on the farm are successfully using crop rotation techniques and cultivation in the off-season. Ndiaye says that in 2011 the farm produced 80 tonnes of peppers, 150 tonnes of tomatoes, 200 tonnes of cabbage, 250 tonnes of potatoes and 155 tonnes of carrots.

“We took in about 28 million CFA francs (around 55,000 dollars) in net profits, leaving each member with around 700,000 CFA (1,400 dollars) in earnings last year,” he told IPS.

According to Ndiaye, the 2009-2010 season was also a good one, though not all of the farm was in production. “We used about eight hectares, but 2010 marked the real starting point for sales of our output after the rehabilitation of the farm… We sold 20 tonnes of cabbage, 145 tonnes of carrots and 257 tonnes of tomatoes.”

“There weren’t so many of us then – we were just 25 – and we earned around 20 million CFA (roughly 40,000 dollars), with each person earning about 400,000 CFA (800 dollars). A good part of our total revenue was spent on repairing the pump and buying seed,” he said.

Adja Aïda Cissé, a councillor for the area as well as president of a local union for the promotion of rural women, stressed the socioeconomic impacts of the Darou Ndoye farm.

“We’re feeding ourselves; we’re supporting ourselves; we’re sending the kids to school now, thanks to the income from the farm. There is no better way to fight poverty,” Cissé said.

“This village was one of the major points of origin for clandestine migration across the sea to Europe,” she added. “Many youth who would have been considering that are instead employed on the farm.”

Even if the success of the farm is widely recognised, there are also some challenges.

Papa Guèye, who himself tried unsuccessfully to make it to Spain on a small fishing boat, has worked on the farm since the beginning of the project. He complains about the cost of fertiliser. “We need 300 bags of organic manure for each hectare; this costs 1,500 CFA (three dollars) if it’s chicken manure, and 700 CFA (1.40 dollars) if it’s cow dung,” he told IPS.

Another of the farmers, Saliou Mbaye, said that though he earns nearly 1,000 dollars each growing season, he lacks proper implements for hoeing. He also complained about the high cost of diesel to fuel the pump.

“Diesel is expensive. Every four days, we spend 160,000 CFA (around 320 dollars) for 200 litres of diesel,” he said.

“We need tractors and access to more water to expand the size of the farm and increase sales. Our produce is in great demand across the border in Mali, Mauritania and Gambia,” he told IPS.

The head of the Return to Agriculture programme, El Hadji Malick Sarr, says that in its five years of existence, the programme has helped set up teams of young Senegalese on 23 farms who are now producing large quantities of fruits and vegetables, 80 percent of it for export.

A total of 1,700 hectares have been equipped with irrigation systems and 7,000 jobs have been created, he told IPS. “From a hectare of vegetables… in a year, a young producer can earn an income of 1.7 million CFA. But the availability of land is such that we can only give each youth (access to) less than half a hectare.”

During a visit to Senegal in November 2011, Mohamed Béavogui, director of the West and Central Africa Division of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), toured some of REVA’s farms, including the one at Darou Ndoye.

“What we have seen here is a very innovative approach,” he said. “It allows young farmers to not only ensure their own food security, but also to produce for sale and export, generating incomes which allow them to improve their living conditions.”

He said he hoped to find synergies between these farms and other agriculture projects supported by IFAD.

There are two women among the 14 candidates contesting the first round of Senegalese presidential elections that will be held on Feb. 26. But according to several analysts, this overwhelmingly Muslim West African country is not ready to be governed by a woman.

One of the female candidates is Amsatou Sow Sidibé, a law professor at Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), leader of the civil society group Convergence of Stakeholders for the Defense of Republican Values. The other is independent candidate and fashion designer Diouma Diakhaté Dieng.

Sow Sidibé, 59, already has a modest track record in politics, while Diakhaté Dieng entered the race at the last moment, her candidacy catching many observers by surprise.

One of the female candidates is Amsatou Sow Sidibé, a law professor at Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), leader of the civil society group Convergence of Stakeholders for the Defense of Republican Values. Courtesy of Trust Africa

Even if some think that courage and gender go well together and could help the two candidates, others feel that Senegal’s electorate is not yet ready to entrust a woman with the reins of power.

The two candidates are well aware of the status of women in the country and the way they are perceived by men, and this is why they are seeking to break the taboo by winning on Feb. 26.

Sow Sidibé says that she has spent decades fighting to promot women’s rights and leadership, because there can be no democracy without the participation of half of the population: 52 percent of Senegal’s population is female, according to 2011 statistics.

On the question of education, she believes it necessary to “allow all young Senegalese to acquire skills that will enable them hold down a decent job, and to enter professional life early”, and this can be accomplished through a policy of education for all.

Sow Sidibé promises to fight against the high cost of living and to address health issues. “We intend to index pensions to the cost of living, to improve health care for soldiers with disabilities… or even to build social housing,” she told IPS.

“Impunity must end and corruption must be resisted. So much money comes into this country and I promise, if I come to power, to manage it as a good mother,” she said. According to her, “poverty concerns 80 percent of the population, and its eradication will happen through voluntary strategies which will target vulnerable people”.

According to Sow Sidibé, Senegal suffers from many problems and it is time to put the country’s destiny in a woman’s hands for equitable management of goods and resources. She adds that it’s necessary to give a chance to women and children to definitively resolve the conflict in the southern region of Casamance.

Diakhaté Dieng, the second candidate, 65, believes that the unemployed and women have not been accounted for in government’s policy and that it’s necessary to help unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 30 to get practical training.

She says that the difficulties facing the country are enormous, underlining the importance of confronting problems of youth unemployment, without ignoring the need for a definitive resolution of the Casamance conflict.

“Once in power, we must enhance the image of education for all. Schools will be restructured and rebuilt, teachers’ salaries will be revised upwards,” she said. “Nor will the energy crisis will not be ignored,  where we now have to count on private donors in order to assure customers and avoid power cuts that we have been living with for more than five years.”

Voters’ opinions of these women are divided. “We are very attached to our traditions. We may talk about equality, but leadership is not part of women’s role,” said Alioune Samb, a literature student at UCAD.

In contrast, his colleague, Issa Gning, says that is an unfair stigmatisation, because according to him, women know the needs of the people better – and act as mothers would. “I would not hesitate to vote for a woman,” he told IPS.

Astou Dieng, a Dakar-based sociologist, also thinks that Senegalese voters are not ready to see a woman in the country’s highest office, because tradition is a weight on their thinking that must not  be forgotten.

“Here in Senegal, there are still problems of caste. People still think of women as sub-human. Sure, there has been change, but this is only in Dakar; in the interior, women are still marginalised,” she told IPS, expressing her belief that the candidacy of the singer Youssou N’Dour was rejected simply because he is a griot – a member of an inferior social class.

For Idrissa Seck, presidential candidate, to have women candidates proves that the country aspires to real change. “I wish good luck to everyone. Presently, we hope for just one thing, the departure of Abdoulaye Wade. If this comes to happen thanks to the women, that’s fine,” he told IPS.

Talla Sylla, a member of the opposition coaltion “Benno Siguil Sénégal”, has asked people to vote for the women candidates.

“Women have played and continue to play an important role in our society. The two candidates should be supported. It’s true that here tradition is still alive, but with women ministers, legislators, and others, people are begining to be aware,” he said.

(END/IPS/12)

It was stones against tear gas in the Senegalese capital this morning as students protested the killing of one of their own on Tuesday evening. At least four people have died since Jan. 27, in wider demonstrations against the controversial validation of President Abdoulaye Wade’s candidacy for re-election for a third term.

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade' has been validated by the country's Constitutional Court to run for a third term, sparking protests. Credit: Paul Morse/Wikicommons

Protests broke out immediately following the validation of Wade’s candidacy by the Constitutional Court on Friday, and a young police officer died in Dakar after being struck by bricks in violent protests. On Monday, a 17-year-old student and a woman in her sixties were killed in Podor, near the border with Mauritania, when police opened fire on demonstrators. Radio France Internationale reported that some 10,000 people participated in Tuesday’s protests.

Several people have been arrested since the demonstrations began, among them human rights defender Alioune Tine, the coordinator of M23, the movement of youth and civil society that has spearheaded the protests. Tine, who is also the president of the Dakar-based African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights, was arrested on Saturday and released – without charge – on Monday.

Wade’s opponents argue that he has already served two consecutive terms and cannot stand for re- election on Feb. 26. The incumbent president, who has ruled Senegal since 2000, says that the 2008 constitutional amendment establishing term limits does not apply retroactively to his previous two terms.

“The validation of the candidacy of President Wade is a constitutional coup,” rival presidential candidate Cheikh Tidiane Gadio told IPS. A former minister, Gadio is one of 14 candidates running for president. “Wade wants to contest the elections, steal them, and then install his son as the leader of the country. The authorities continue to initimidate and arrest youth… The struggle will continue both nationally and internationally.”

Aïssata Tall, a lawyer and spokesperson for the Senegalese Socialist Party, promised to challenge Wade’s candidacy in other courts.

“The haste with which the Constitutional Council rendered its decision on the appeal is unconstitutional. If need be, we will go to international courts (to challenge it), because our country has ratified international accords on human rights,” Tall told IPS. “On the legal front, we are prepared to show that the candidacy of President Wade is invalid…”

Macky Sall, at one time Senegal’s prime minister under Wade, but now leader of the Alliance for the Republic party and a presidential candidate, condemned the violence and the aggression directed towards activists. “We have noted that Wade has given uniforms to individuals who have thrown stones. And the police have violently attacked demonstrators with water cannons. Wade is basing his candidacy on force.”

Another former prime minister turned presidential candidate, Idrissa Seck, told IPS that he had learned of the protest-related deaths with sadness and concern. The leader of the Rewmi Party (the name means “my country” in the local language, Wolof) condemned the decision of the Constitutional Court to accept what he called an illegal candidacy.

“It is a decision with grave consequences for peace, stability and security in Senegal. But beyond that, it is a surprising and disappointing decision for all democrats in Senegal as well as those in friendly countries…” Seck told IPS.

Ismaëla Madior Fall, a professor of public law, believes the Constitutional Council cannot ignore the legal force of a declaration by President Wade in 2007, in which he himself stated that he could not stand for re-election after his second term. “In constitutional law, one regards the president of the republic as one of the authentic interpreters of the constitution,” he told IPS.

“The statement, the presidential testimony on the meaning of these provisions is something which the Constitutional Council cannot ignore. A constitutional judge must also be attentive to the political class and anticipate the future,” Fall said, adding that people are left with only one option – to demonstrate.

Presidential spokesperson Sérigne Mbacké Ndiaye says it is out of the question to delay the Feb. 26 poll, whatever the current situation. “There is a will, on the part of certain individuals, to sow chaos in this country, but it is not is not an option to delay the poll, much less postpone it.”

According to Mbacké Ndiaye, the parties who are demonstrating appear unwilling to take part in the elections and that is why they are issuing “calls to insurrection and resistance”.

“The whole world is watching us,” Mbacké Ndiaye said. “We do not have the right to create a difficult situation in the country. My belief is that it is impossible to commit electoral fraud in Senegal because we have an excellent electoral register…” adding that the real and worthwhile battle is the one that is coming in a free, transparent and democratic election.

There are dusty barrels carefully positioned outside many of the family compounds in the Léona neighbourhood of Kaolack, a city of 20,000 in western Senegal: signs of success for a project to introduce the use of biogas as a source of fuel. Amadou Faye, whose family herds cows, goats and sheep as well as growing groundnuts on the side, is among the early adopters.

Senegal is supporting the construction of thousands of biodigesters by local masons. Credit: Zach Swank/Peace Corps

For the past two months, his household of 25 people has relied exclusively on energy produced from their livestock’s waste.

“To spend 300,000 CFA francs – more even – to install biogas is difficult. But I think it’s important. Since we started using this energy, I haven’t had problems with electricity cuts,” he told IPS. “We have our own energy source. I can easily find replacement parts when it is damaged, because Thecogas Sénégal, the company responsible for the installation, provides them to us.”

The harmful effects on the environment of using firewood or charcoal for domestic fuel are well documented – contributing to deforestation and threatening the health of women who spend hours of each day cooking over smoky flames. Yet turning to electricity as an alternative is frustrated by already- inadequate generation. Nearly every West African country is wrestling with frequent power cuts; in Senegal these have even led to public demonstrations against the national electric company.

Senegal, along with Mauritania and Burkina Faso, has turned to biogas as a partial solution. Alassane Dème, secretary general of Senegal’s Ministry for Energy, says that a major obstacle facing the country’s National Biogas Programme (known as PNB in French) is the high initial cost of installation.

The PNB is supporting the construction of thousands of biodigesters by local masons, consisting of an underground chamber – much like a septic tank – into which cow dung and water are added manually each morning, and a system of barrels in which the gas produced is trapped before being piped to a household’s kitchen.

“The fermentation of the mixture of dung and other waste will produce, in conditions similar to human digestion, methane gas. This gas is piped through a system of tubes to the kitchen or to a gas lamp to provide light in the house,” he said.

Anne Mendy Corréa, programme coordinator for PNB Senegal, explains that in addition to gas, biodigesters also produce a valuable organic fertiliser which the beneficiary households in both rural and peri-urban areas can use in their fields.

Each biodigester costs between 800 and 920 dollars depending on its size, though the Senegalese government is providing a supporting subsidy covering between 35 and 50 percent of the setup cost, according to the energy ministry.

Ousseynou Bâ, the energy ministry’s chief of staff, says the PNB is being piloted both in the groundnut- producing region of Kaolack and in the peri-urban areas surrounding the Senegalese capital, Dakar; 8,000 biodigesters are expected to be built between now and 2013.

“In Thiès, not far from Dakar, entrepreneur Aïssatou Gning has also turned to biogas. “I’m a restaurant owner; I spent more than 500,000 CFA (just over 1,000 dollars) to install a biodigester, the barrels and the tubing,” she told IPS.

“I have two barrels to store gas and I’ve been using them for five months and the needle shows that the gas level has not dropped. I have dung in reserve. I’ll say this – it’s expensive, but once you have it, you no longer have problems with energy.”

In Burkina Faso, which has also begun experimenting with biogas, Ignace Ouédraogo, head of PNB Burkina, says the cost of a six cubic metre biodigester (two barrels) varies between 850 and 1100 dollars, depending on the area and the construction materials used. This is somewhat higher than in Senegal, but here too the government is subsidising start-up costs.

“The government allocated a subsidy of 160,000 CFA (around 340 dollars) per biodigester. In the Cascades region (in the east), the beneficiary contributes up to 190,000 CFA (404 dollars) in cash, and can rely on the mobilisation of labour, which represents a value of 100,000 or to 140,000 CFA (300 dollars)…,” explains Ouédraogo.

In Mauritania, El Hadj Mamadou Bâ, president of the Mauritanian Self-development Association, says that over the past three years, his country has been able to produce biogas very cheaply, with neither harmful environmental effects nor a cost to users.

“At the beginning of the project, we had trained and empowered women in the Ari Hara and Dioudé Djéri areas – in the Senegal river valley (in the south of Mauritania) – in the utilisation of biogas, so that they can ensure the installation and management of biogas kits,” he said. He told IPS that around 100 families are now meeting their energy needs from the output of biodigesters.

According to Bâ, the women who’ve been trained there are now capable of installing and maintaining biogas units, benefiting more than 3,500 people and improving hygiene in and around the villages by collecting animal waste as feedstock.

West African health experts are calling for governments to take the prevalence of hepatitis B and C more seriously, and to act to reduce the cost of treatment as part of more effective control of the disease.

Hepatitis vaccines are a key element in controlling the disease. Credit: Bios/Wikicommons

The hepatitis B virus is responsible for more than 80 percent of liver cancers in Africa, said the coordinator of Senegal’s National Programme Against Hepatitis, Aminata Sall Diallo, during an international meeting held in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, from Jul. 27 to 29.

Hepatitis refers to swelling and inflammation of the liver, which can be caused by numerous factors, including a family of five viruses. The Dakar conference was concerned with the three most common viral strains, which can cause fatal liver damage and cancer.

The hepatitis A virus spreads via contaminated food or water. The B strain is transmitted through bodily fluids like blood or semen, while type C spreads via blood-to-blood contact, such as transfusions. The latter two viruses produce a long-term illness, while type A hepatitis runs its course much faster – many infected people experience only mild symptoms.

The conference aimed to share the issues and challenges facing each country, to identify the best practices for Francophone Africa as a whole, and define common strategies and arguments.

“The idea is to push governments, who have committed themselves, to make hepatitis a priority so that treatment will be accessible to all,” said Diallo.

“The cost is beyond our resources. It requires a million CFA francs (around 2,250 dollars) for a month’s treatment; our grants are not sufficient,” she stressed.

“Our fight is for a focus specifically on long-term carriers of the virus, to offer them treatment, to fight effectively to be able to detect the illness in Africa. It’s the only way to prevent transmission of the disease.”

According to official statistics released in June, 17 percent of the Senegalese population are carriers of one or another form of the hepatitis virus, including 12 percent of children under five and 22 percent of pregnant women. Some 5,000 people die from hepatitis B in Senegal each year.

Pape Saliou Mbaye, coordinator of medical services at Dakar’s Hôpital Principal, urges care to prevent transmission of hepatitis B and C viruses through contact with infected blood.

“It’s necessary to be careful when handling sharp or pointed objects such as those used by tattooists and barbers – shaving equipment, piercing equipment, tools for acupuncture, excision, circumcision and nail clipping…” Mbaye told IPS.

Diéynaba Samaké, the president of SOS Hépatites Mali, a local association, said that nearly one in five Malians are carriers of the hepatitis B virus – 2.6 million people, or half of all young people between 18 and 25 years of age.

“Treatment for hepatitis B [in Mali] remains relatively expensive. At 600,000 CFA (around 1,348 dollars) per month, the cost of treatment is equivalent to several times the monthly salary of an average Malian,” Samaké told IPS.

“There is not, at this stage, any framework for specialised care for hepatitis B, but in the past three years, the government has supported prevention, testing and treatment of hepatitis B and C.”

To reduce the incidence of the disease, Samaké recommends vaccination as the most effective weapon against the strains that predominate in Africa.

The president of the Scientific Council of Cameroonians Against Viral Hepatitis, Njoya Oudou, says his country’s prevalence rate for hepatitis B stands at over 10 percent, and 12 percent for hepatitis C. He believes governments should show greater political will to fight the disease.

“Our network operates with its own resources to educate people, organise refresher courses for doctors, run campaigns and negotiate with pharmaceutical firms. For the moment, we have only moral support from the government,” he told IPS.

Ali Djibo, director general of health at the Ministry of Public Health in Niger, said that the fragmented studies into this disease in his country show a general prevalence rate of up to 14 percent of the population. This places Niger in the group of countries with strong endemicity, he told IPS.

“The precautions to be taken to prevent transmission are, among others, the systematic use of prophylactics and avoiding the exchange of used syringes, scarifications, piercing, group circumcision with poorly sterilised instruments, and excision,” said Djibo.

In Mauritania, some 500,000 people are infected with hepatitis B and around 600,000 others are infected by hepatitis C, according to the secretary general of the country’s health ministry, Sidi Ali Ould Sidi Boubacar. Around 3,500 people die from the two forms of hepatitis each year, he told IPS.

“To better fight against viral infections, the government several months ago initiated an Expanded Programme of Immunisation and implemented a policy guaranteeing treatment after a diagnosis of the virus,” he said.

July signals the start of three months of intense activity for residents of the seven villages around the small dam at Sébi Ponty. The dam was stocked with tilapia in 2006, and aquaculture is proving to be a vital economic activity for youth in the area.

July signals the beginning of three months of intense activity for residents of the seven villages around the small dam at Sébi Ponty. The dam was stocked with tilapia in 2006, and aquaculture is proving to be a vital economic activity for youth in the area.

Approaching the water, one hears the the young workers singing while they pull powerfully on their fishing nets. As they draw the nets tight, gleaming fish leap to escape the tightening mesh, to the delight of a host of children watching on the banks.

In October, fishing in the dam will be forbidden for two or three months to allow stocks to reproduce before another period of harvest from December to February.

The dam – 500 metres long, 400 metres wide and around four metres deep – was stocked with 17 tonnes of tilapia hatchlings five years ago. According to the ANA (Senegal’s National Aquaculture Agency), it now yields 50 kilogrammes of fish per day during the twice-yearly fishing season. The operation is handled by a cooperative enterprise involving 300 local youth.

One of those pulling in the nets, 20-year-old Pape Ndaw, says that since the dam’s rehabilitation in 2006 by the local department of agricultural engineering, many families have come to depend on the fishery.

“In addition to aquaculture, this pond also serves diverse agriculture and livestock activities in the area,” Ndaw told IPS. “I earn more than 120,000 CFA francs (around 270 dollars) per month when there’s a good catch. I’m supporting my elderly parents as well as my own young family.”

Ndaw said the work at the dam is his only employment. “But during the off-season of two or three months in order when the fish are allowed to reproduce, I keep myself busy with poultry at the house.”

Anita Diagne Diouf, 30, says the fishery offers real alternatives to the area’s young people who often respond to the high cost of living by joining an exodus towards the capital, Dakar.

“We [the women] are the vendors of fish products… We share the income and get the same amount as the men,” Diouf told IPS. “During the off-season, when the men work with animals or repairing nets ahead of the new fishing season, we turn to winnowing grain and doing maintenance on the livestock pens.”

Aquaculture, according to Awa Guèye, the official representative of the youth employed at the pond, first of all meets the food needs of families, and secondly provides a source of income.

“Previously, women were forced to go as far as Rufisque, more than 20 kilometres from Sébi Ponty, to get fish to cook,” she told IPS.

According to experts at the ANA, however, the dam has several obstacles to overcome, including training for users, improved availability of equipment for the fishing cooperative, and better access to credit. But the chief challenge is the co-existence of various users.

The president of the dam’s management committee, Amadou Camara, explains that in addition to fish, the pond plays an important role in horticulture and livestock rearing.

“The market gardeners use water from the dam. The herders bring their animals here to drink, especially during the dry season. This often creates tension between us, the managers of the dam, and the herders or farmers,” he said.

One worrying sign of poor coordination amongst users is that the dam is filling with sand. Mamadou Ngom heads an ANA unit focused on popularising and improving the value of dams like Sébi Ponty’s, and he says siltation could threaten the dam’s role as an economic pillar for this area.

“This problem is caused by overexploitation of the water; the market gardeners in the area have to stop pumping water for irrigation,” Ngom told IPS.

“Add to this the lack of fishing gear, of proper conservation of the fish, and of access to finance for the operators… The fishing cooperative needs canoes, nets, and screens to prevent the fish escaping, especially during the flood period,” he said.

Babacar Ndao, the national minister with responsibility for small-scale water reservoirs, says the government will soon begin dredging sand from the dam. “We are aware that the dam is a multipurpose one, used at once by gardeners, herders, subsistence farmers and aquaculturists, hence the urgency of clearing it out in order to sustain it,” he says.

Ndao says that the practice of drip irrigation, which helps farmers make more efficient use water, will be introduced with development assistance from Israel.

“Further, the government will launch a programme to improve the equipment and reinforce training of the various classes of users.” he added.

The period between May and August is when farmers in the West African Sahel fear the arrival of swarms of locusts. This year, efforts to limit the devastation will be strengthened by coordination across the region thanks to the Africa Project to Combat Locust Invasions.

Senegalese boy with locusts. Credit: IRIN

The project is known by its French acronym, PALUCP, and includes Mali, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Chad. According to the World Bank representative in Senegal, Denis Jordy, the aim of the project is to prevent current and future locust invasions in these seven countries. With the technical expertise of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) Commission for Controlling the Desert Locusts, the project has halted the threat and better prepared teams in various countries to prevent future invasions.

“The six billion CFA francs (about 13 million dollars) released by the World Bank for a period of four years will go towards strengthening institutional and technical capacity of the countries involved and it will consolidate the cooperative efforts between the countries for combating the locust problem,” said Jordy.

“It’s also necessary to give financial and material assistance to the communities who have been invaded [by the locusts],” stressed Jordy, inviting the West African countries to coordinate their efforts with the Maghreb countries, which also have experience in the battle against locusts.

Locust invasions threaten harvests of staple foods like millet and sorghum and cause significant damage to both crops and grazing land – and that’s apart from the consequences for the environment, and human and animal health in these countries, notes Jérôme Ilboudo, from the agricultural institute of Burkina Faso.

“It’s about transferring knowledge and experience and ensuring that the gains made are sustained, as well as sharing lessons learned within the PALUCP implementation framework,” he told IPS. “In Burkina Faso, we have a method that involves us creeping up on locusts in the dead of night and killing them immediately. Other countries do not do this. So we have shared our respective experiences.”

The regional project against locusts depends heavily on the sharing of information and experiences in the fight against the locust threat; identifying strategies for managing the fight and establishing the basis for better collaboration between the various role-players and small-holder farmers.

The information exchange will involve awareness of the locust situation in each area. Technicians from the different countries must work cooperatively, particularly when the locusts cross borders.

At the regional level, there are plans to improve the stocking and management of pesticides in each country, as well as put protocols in place to allow one country could supply pesticides to another country whose stocks are depleted.

The agricultural minister from Senegal, Khadim Guèye, assured farmers that effective measures to deal with the locust threat have been taken in his country. “It’s about predicting, anticipating and knowing where they are to prevent them from multiplying exponentially and then decimating them where they reproduce,” said the minister.

“We have strengthened the national system for combating the problem and have improved our stock levels of pesticide with the construction of a warehouse that can hold 9,000 tonnes and the handling of empty pesticide containers,” he said.

“A national management plan for the locust problem and the strengthening of the productive capacity of 12,040 agricultural households that are beneficiaries of donations of agricultural inputs and supplies in the period between harvests and the financing of 305 micro projects are all on track,” said Guèye.

Smallholder farmers are sceptical. Ibrahima Diaw, a member of the rural council of Kaffrine in the centre of Senegal, the says the situation in the farmlands is catastrophic after locusts pass through, and more resources are required to overcome these voracious insects.

“Their arrival is imminent and that is haunting us,” he says, worried.

Participants in a PALUCP workshop that brought representatives of agriculture ministries and agricultural research services together in Dakar at the end of March, just ahead of the locust season, seemed sensitive to Diaw’s concerns. They recommended the strengthening of civil society organisations to support better management of locust invasions. The organisations would be called on to raise popular awareness of the importance of efforts to fight the invasions.

The workshop attendees also recommended that the governments both restore the productive capacity of affected households with donations of agricultural inputs and food during the period between harvests, and finance microprojects.

The harm done by female genital mutilation is still enormous in Podor, a city in the north of Senegal, say officials at the local hospital. While the practice is declining slightly, some religious leaders in the region still support it.

Commemorating the 10th aniversary of a declaration abandoning FGM in the town of Malicounda Bambara: progress elsewhere has been slow. Credit: Heba Aly/IRIN

On Oct. 3, religious leaders from 60 of the 300 villages in the district approved a declaration to abandon genital mutilation and early and forced marriage. But other clerics have spoken out against the declaration, defending both practices as an integral part of local traditions.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been forbidden by law in Senegal since 1999, but the practice has continued briskly in Podor, despite campaigns by NGOs discouraging it.

The U.S.-based NGO Tostan (the name means “breakthrough” in Wolof) encourages women and marabouts in Podor to give up excision and forced marriage. According to its regional coordinator, Abdoulaye Kandé, to speak against FGM is not the same as speaking against Islam or trying to introduce social norms contrary to the customs of the region.

“Between now and 2015, the Senegalese government has set itself the objective of making the practice of excision a distant memory for the communities who still subscribe to it. Our organisation has to collaborate with the authorities to effectively end FGM and forced and early marriage. We will continue to raise awareness of the communities on the harm of these practices,” he said.

But Amadou Ba, a sociologist at the Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, a city not far from Podor, says this practice cannot be eliminated in a day and one must first make the merits of ending it clear to local opinion leaders without frustrating anyone.

“To sensitise the masses or a group of people will have no effect. FGM, early and forced marriage are etched into the lives of the communities of Podor,” says Ba.

“How else can one understand that a young girl who has not been cut is excluded from a group of women? She is not considered a woman. Therefore it’s preferable that organisations fighting against FGM put in place other communication strategies and approaches to address the practice of excision.”

According to certain religious leaders in the region, to fail to practice excision and early marriage is against the precepts of Islam. Thierno Hamath Mbodj, the imam of a mosque in another town in the area, Diattar, says that Islam has never forbidden the practice of excision or early marriage of young girls.

“To cut a girl is fine, and strongly recommended by Islam. These practices have existed for a long time and never had a negative impact,” he said.

“No one can forbid us to do what Islam authorises. We will continue to cut our girls and we’ll give them away in marriage at the right time.”

But Gamaji Saré, another imam from Podor, doesn’t share this view. “Some say that it’s not mandatory, others the opposite. Religious leaders must meet to agree on abandoning the practice, because everyone knows it is forbidden by the law. Even Islam doesn’t authorise it, it’s more a part of our tradition.”

Hawa Abdoul Bâ, a member of the Podor Community Management Committee, says that women are afraid not to excise their girls. “According to what we know, a woman who is not cut is difficult to satisfy sexually. That’s why one must take a daughter to the old lady to cut the clitoris so she can control her sexuality until she’s married,” she said.

But Aminata Ba Diallo, a former FGM practitioner from Podor, said that parents no longer take their daughters to have them cut. “I was speaking with a friend who is still cutting. She complained that parents no longer bring their daughters. In my neighbourhood, Somna, from January until now, only 12 girls were cut and their parents are being threatened by the authorities. The practice is shrinking.”

According to health officials in Podor, the side effects of female genital mutilation that they are seeing are enormous. Aside from the removal of the clitoris and the minor lips of the vagina, midwife Fatou Diaw Sène lists cases of sexual dysfunction, tetanus, fistula and difficult childbirth as frequent experiences amongst mutilated women.

Dr Maodo Malick Diop, the chief doctor of the Podor health district, explains that FGM makes birth difficult because of the narrowing of the vulvo-genital area.

“The minor lips of the female genitals play a large role in childbirth. They are elastic and open to allow the head of the baby to pass through. With excision, they lose this elasticity. Complications linked to excisions frequently force us to resort to caesarean sections,” he told IPS.

The risk of repeated caesareans, according to Diop, has often led women to have tubal ligations done to avoid future pregnancy and protect their health.

In Podor, he said, seven of ten women who come to give birth have undergone genital mutilation.

“Excision is a practice to be condemned,” he said.

Over the past four years, the Local Small-scale Irritation Project has spent more than $10.5 million U.S. dollars supporting rural communities in Senegal.

Harvesting rice in Senegal: irrigation projects have greatly improved yields and incomes. Credit: Olivier Epron/Wikicommons

These water reserves have contributed to increased rice yields, which grew from less than one tonne per hectare in 2003 to three to six tonnes per hectare in 2009. It also allowed the development of off-season horticulture, rice cultivation and vegetable gardening. Communities in target villages of Fatick, Tambacounda and Kolda Kédougou also achieved six to eight months self-sufficiency in rice crops.

“The project has also helped increase the income of more than 6,000 farmers by over 50 percent; replenished the water table; launched micro-projects (in water supply and sanitation), and an anti-salinisation campaign,” Wally Gueye, technical advisor to the Ministry of Environment told IPS.

He said more than 2,100 hectares of land that had been rendered saline was reclaimed; preventive measures were taken to protect a further 9,800 hectares of land at risk. of salinity.

“The activities conducted in different regions often exceeded targets,” said PAPIL coordinator Amadou Baba Sy, “whether it be seedling production and reforestation, creating and maintaining fire-breaks, or cattle rangeland clearing and maintenance.”

He added that a programme on water-borne diseases was implemented by regional medical centres which included information, public education and communication campaigns along with advocacy tools.

Sy emphasized that the persistent food and financial crisis, the adverse effects of climate change, floods caused by torrential rains, desert encroachment, coastal erosion and loss of ecosystems have combined to hinder some of PAPIL’s achievements.

He also said there were still some difficulties to be overcome before the programme can expand nationally. These difficulties are mainly tied to implementation delays and funding gaps.

An agreement was signed in February between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and PAPIL defining a framework for collaboration, co-managing and co-financing joint activities and guaranteeing the project’s sustainability as a tool for grassroots development, Sy told IPS.

A total of 207 microprojects amounting to about $1.6 million dollars are available to rural communities, according to Sy. The projects include 35 for water education, 10 health, and 98 for post-harvest equipment.

Jeffrey Povolny, Senegal director of USAID/Wula Nafaa (“Benefits of the Forest” in Bambara), states that USAID has the added intention to work with PAPIL to help the Senegalese government improve its agricultural policies and activities.

“We work on the same issues. It was logical for us to combine our efforts and work together for better returns,” he says. The overall objective of USAID / Wula Nafaa is to contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable local development by increasing the income of rural producers and local communities, he told IPS.

Ibrahima Diouf, coordinator of a group of farmers who’ve been participating in the project in Fatick for over three years, the breadth and productivity of rice cultivation have increased considerably.

“Our group, which includes over one hundred people, has more than five hectares of rice… Currently we’re supported by PAPIL especially regarding irrigation. We also produce garden vegetables, a very profitable undertaking,” he told IPS.

Famara Sarr, vice-chairman of Fatick’s regional council, said it was important to encourage the government to provide more resources to the project.

“Lack of funding prevents PAPIL from reaching approximately 65 percent of farmed regions and 70 percent of other agricultural production areas,” he says. “The project must be institutionalised to support communities with programmes that are to everyone’s advantage.”

Despite the financial sector boom in Senegal, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), which represent over 90 percent of the industrial fabric of the country, struggle to access funding for their development, their representatives claim.

Boosting SMBs in Senegal would require more than 600 billion CFA francs (about 1.2 billion dollars), Ibrahima Diouf, director of SMBs, said.

Diouf told IPS that the high rejection rate of SMB applications is due to the loan applicants’ lack of familiarity with financial reporting. This weakness is compounded by the fact that the country’s banks lack staff that can analyse and understand SMB growth profiles.

“A small company that’s launching doesn’t have the same needs as one that is restructuring. But also, applications aren’t assembled in a way that reassures creditors,” he added. This is due to the lack of financial information and reliable financial statements from the applicants. But also, applications fail to provide the guarantees required by creditors, Diouf said.

Despite the diversification of supply and the presence of new players in the banking and finance fields, there are not enough personnel who know the SMB profile, says Diouf.

According to a survey funded by German aid, involving over 703 companies in Dakar between November 2008 and January 2009 and published in February 2010, the informal sector is virtually absent from the SMB sector. This means that the informal sector is not taken into account by banks financing SMBs.

The report also highlights the fact that sectors such as fisheries, agriculture and textiles, which are dominant, lack a sound development strategy.

“There are discrepancies between the economic structure and the SMB framework. Due to difficult market conditions and sluggish business, financial institutions invest only five percent of their funds in SMBs,” Vincent Akué, team leader of economic consultants in Dakar, explained to IPS. “For loans, the collateral accepted by the institutions is structured for SMBs, 35 percent consist of personal guarantees, while for informal sector enterprises, 39 percent of loans use mortgages as guarantees.”

According to Akué, because of the limited access to bank credit, businesses entrepreneurs are often forced to seek loans from their circle of friends and family. He added that some microfinance institutions use methods he deems nearly abusive to put maximum pressure on borrowers and to recover distressed debt very quickly.

“About 60 percent of businesses surveyed want to expand. The investments planned for this purpose are mainly land and buildings, capital expenditures and purchase of raw materials. Thus, lack of funding for investment and increasing inventory is a major bottleneck,” he told IPS. “When formal structures commit funding, in 65 percent of the cases it is for businesses that are in a consolidation phase,” he adds.

According Ndeye Lo, a promoter of products made from local cereals, the conditions have not yet come together for increased financing of SMBs. “If SMBs have difficulties getting loans its due firstly to a lack of training, secondly to microfinance entrepreneurs’ unawareness of bank financing. The training is didactic because it gives entrepreneurs better tools and better business management skills,” she told IPS.

Aminata Ndione, member of the Syndicat des femmes pour la transformation des poissons (Women’s Fish Processing Union), told IPS that the lack of credit dramatically slows her business. “When we apply for funding, they do not even consider us. This year we put together another very good file, but it was dismissed simply because they do not trust us. But in the media banks are constantly advertising credit for SMBs,” she said.

Ndione believes that in Senegal, only the rich get loans. “You know, in the fish business, if I told you that we make millions of CFA francs every month, you wouldn’t believe me. Dried fish is sent to Togo, Benin and Mali. But we want funding to upgrade the furnace so that smoking and drying fish is faster and less exhausting, but it is not easy,” she lamented.

Fatou Sankaré, treasurer of the Association des femmes pour la transformation des céréales (Women’s Cereal Processing Association), also faces financing difficulties that slows the growth of her business.

“With corn, we made a kind of paste to sell, we make sorrel (hibiscus) and ginger juice. We still do all of this by hand, yet there are machines to do it, and we ask for loans, but it is useless,” she told IPS. “What we found is that sometimes the interest rate was too high, other times the repayment schedule is too short compared to our forecasts.”

Sankaré acknowledges that illiteracy is a major obstacle to business growth. “You know, amongst all the women you see here, almost none have a solid understanding of financial matters, and it causes problems for us. I wish the government would organise training sessions for us women entrepreneurs. This would help us manage our businesses better,” she says.

As part of a project to support community initiatives and fight poverty in South Senegal, the Sédhiou Local Development Fund received a donation of agricultural equipment worth more than half a million dollars in a bid to reverse the region’s dramatic drop in agricultural production in recent years.

Thirteen tillers, three tractors, 16 mills and three machines for hulling rice were delivered by the Italian ministry of foreign affairs in late October.

Bafodé Dramé, coordinator of Sédhiou’s regional fund, told IPS the project’s overall objective was to improve living conditions in this part of the Casamance region in southern Senegal, by supporting investments to create jobs and improve basic services and income.

“This batch of equipment will be used to boost rice production. The arable area will be larger. The donation was due to the state’s ‘Big Push’ for agricultural and food abundance, because we are in an area where there is enough arable land, and every year we receive plenty of rain,” he said.

Robert Bassène is a 53-year-old Sédhiou farmer. In his field IPS found that the rice heads has begun to develop. According to Bassène, this is the most critical moment of production, because the field has to be watched constantly to prevent birds eating the grains.

Bassène bemoans the lack of technical assistance and monitoring from the national agriculture department’s agricultural extension officers.

“We suffer, you know. Look at my field – because of the lack of technical assistance from the government authorities, my production won’t be as high as I expected,” he claimed. Last year he produced only 35 bags of rice weighing 50 kilos each.

“This donation is a good thing, but the problem is: how are we going to share it among ourselves? When the aid workers leave, the authorities are going to politicise these machines. And if you are not part of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS, the party in power), you won’t get anything,” Bassène said.

But this was denied by Samba Sène, of the PDS office in Sédhiou. “They always say that. But we are all Senegalese. The PDS doesn’t take a thing. This equipment is for the farmers, not for the PDS; therefore every farmer or farming group may benefit from it,” he said.

According to Bassène, the biggest obstacle to development in the region is the war. “First you have the sound of the guns. When they hear that, entire families abandon their fields and cross the border to escape into Guinea-Bissau, which is not far from here. Then you have the landmines. When we plough we find mines. A lot of us have lost a foot because of that,” he tells IPS.

One such is Mamadou Diatta, a farmer aged about 40. He was ploughing his field in January when he stepped on a mine. His foot had to be amputated. “I’m like this because of a mine. I’m very happy about this donation by the Italians, but I’m also suspicious of how the equipment will be distributed.

“You know, here in Casamance there are people who are treated as separatists: you can be sure that those people won’t get a thing, even though we are all Senegalese,” he complains.

IPS also found fears of being left out at an agricultural cooperative run by women. According to Awa Kane, president of an association named ‘Jakko’ (which means ‘union’ in Balante, one of Casamance’s dialects), women are often marginalised in Sédhiou.

“We are marginalised here. It is not the first time we receive this type of aid, but when women ask for help, we are not given anything, even though we are more active than men in the agricultural domain,” she said.

“I really hope that this time the men will remember to give us something. It’s important if we want to be self-sufficient with food in this region, and even in the whole of Senegal.”

Accompanied by three other women, Kane led us to a large field, more than a hectare, owned by their cooperative. They produce mostly rice – two tonnes last year – but also grow beans, mangoes and groundnuts as well. Kane said production relies entirely on the climate.

“We didn’t have technical monitoring, and it is not easy as we have all kinds of threats, especially those related to the war. I wish the Senegalese authorities would negotiate with separatists in order to end the war in this region,” she said.

“This war is a lot of trouble, especially for us women. Our children are dying. When you want to develop a country, you first need peace. You see, because of the war, nobody goes to the field anymore. The plants grow without care – this is serious.”

Cheikh Kane Niane, regional governor, assured IPS that distribution of the equipment would be fair.

“I understand the concerns of all regarding distribution of the equipment. This time we, the local authorities, will make sure everybody gets access to it, because this donation aims to support the farmers’ efforts in line with the government policy of ensuring food security,” he said to IPS.

Farmers are complaining about a lack of technical assistance and the poor quality of seeds they’ve planted this year in the Kaolack region, Senegal’s groundnut-producing area, 200 kilometres south of the capital Dakar.

New varieties of groundnuts that are suited to the local soil and climate are part of arresting falling production. Credit: ICRISAT

The production of groundnuts, Senegal’s third-largest export product after fishing and phosphates, is in freefall. The 2008 harvest fell by over 47 percent, according to the most recent report of the groundnut producers’ association, the Cadre de concertation des producteurs des arachides.

According to the report, groundnut prices are increasingly tight in Europe, its main market. Drought and soil degradation – too severe to be corrected by applying fertiliser – are the root causes of Senegal’s agricultural difficulties.

Samba Ka, regional head of the National Council for Dialogue and Cooperation of Rural People, says if the countryside is plagued by problems, the fault lies with farmers who expect government assistance for everything.

“Farmers in Senegal have failed to instill a love of the land and an appreciation of livestock in their children. The earth is not tilled, it is scratched at. Livestock is no longer looked after, it is merely used,” he explains to IPS.

Ka however acknowledges the urgent need to put in place new agricultural policy addressing the supply of quality seeds, which would be reviewed every four years. He also recommends providing basic varieties of peanuts, millet, sorghum, maize and good quality fertiliser to smallholder farmers at subsidised prices, as well as new farming aids.

Visiting millet, maize and groundnut fields in Thiaré, not far from Kaolack, IPS found that some crops have not benefited from technical support, thereby compromising yields.

Malick Seck from the Senegalese Union of Farmers and Vegetable Market Gardeners, says farmers do not have good seeds to sow this year.

“The state no longer helps us; the seed we received this year is not good and furthermore, there was no support. As small farmers, we go into debt to buy pesticides. After the harvest we pay the money back, but more often than not, problems arise when the harvest is not good,” he laments.

Pointing to his field of groundnuts, Seck tells IPS that where the shoots are not growing densely, it means seeds were of poor quality. “Look! There is a difference between this field of groundnuts and the other. You can see the shoots there are more dense than they are here,” he tells IPS.

Thiaré farmer Habib Ndiaye is more concerned with the sale of farm produce after harvest. “We are being forced to sell our harvest at low prices in the weekly markets. We just end up in deeper debt,” he tells IPS.

“We sold at 100 CFA francs per kilogramme of groundnuts (about $ 0.22) instead of at 130 or 150 CFA ($0.29 or $0.33) per kilogramme, which is the price needed to meet our family needs,” says Ndiaye, lamenting the lack of support for the marketing of groundnuts in many areas.

To help small farmers, the World Food Program (WFP) on Oct. 7 launched a “food facility” programme. This programme has a funding of 22.6 million dollars from the European Union and will help keep vulnerable small-scale farmers in Senegal afloat.

According to the WFP’s West Africa regional director, Thomas Yanga, the programme will help small-scale farmers boost production and improve food security. He says it is a “mission of food security and social welfare.”

According to the Association for the Promotion of Development (ASPRODEB), a programme to rebuild stocks of quality seed has been in place since last year and is running in most areas of the groundnut basin. Based in Dakar, ASPRODEB is an association working in private partnership with the ministry of agriculture.

“The Senegalese government, alongside its development partners supports groundnut producers in the Senegal River valley,” says Cheikh Fall, a member of ASPRODEB’s board.

“It seeks to ensure the availability of 79,000 tonnes of groundnut seeds before December 2010 – and these must be certified N2 seeds (new varieties suited to the local soil and climate),”

According to Macoumba Diouf, director general of the Institute of Agricultural Research based in Dakar, there is a research programme for the diversification of certified seed for cultivation in Senegal. The programme seeks to revive traditional farming practices around food production, which have either been lost or not used in 30 years.

“The programme will permit producers not only to continue using the seed and other resources they are accustomed to, but offers smallholder farmers the possibility of a higher yield – estimated at five to six tonnes per hectare in research station conditions, or between 500 kilos and 1.5 tonnes per hectare in the field.”

While Africa is still far from having adequate capacity for scientific innovation, women are more and more present in the field of research for the continent’s sustainable development.

Processing shea butter in Ghana: women in the region are building on traditional knowledge to improve production. Credit: Kenneth S. Yussif

This is the view of Dr Marie Louise Correa, formerly minister in charge of scientific research in Senegal. Correa stresses that economic growth and development are based on a country’s capacity to acquire and use new technology.

Research in Africa is held back by the relatively small numbers of engineers, technicians and researchers, Correa says, adding that women are not marginalised in scientific research. “We work in perfect harmony with male researchers. Certainly, we are women, but this doesn’t disturb us in the exercise of our functions.”

For evidence, Correa looks at the number of women involved in science research at the Cheikh Anta Diop University. In the 1990s, there were only 15 women researchers there; today there are more than 40.

Correa was one of a group of researchers and policy-makers from across Africa who met in Dakar on May 4-7 to discuss knowledge in the service of development. The conference was convened by Knowledge Management Africa, a continent-wide network for promoting and sharing knowledge to improve governance and service delivery.

“The continent is far behind in terms of scientific research, but we women play an influential role in the development of the continent through research. It’s important to note the fruitful contributions of the women researchers at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.” she said.

Early support for women in science

Also present was Yacine Touré, an advisor on science and technology at the Food Technology Institute of Senegal (known by its French acronym, ITA), who argues that the problem in Africa is most often at the level of sharing and the transfer of knowledge.

“To begin with, in the acquisition of knowledge, there are fewer educated women than men. In Senegal, less than 50 percent of females are in school. Those who are, often leave school at the primary or secondary level,” she said.

“If there is not equality between women and men in research, it’s not because of a lack of capacity by women, it’s due to sociocultural realities. We need a change in the behaviour of parents, so they’ll let their daughters continue their higher studies instead of being married off early.

“For example, at ITA, there are more than 80 technicians and scientists, more than 35 of them women including six women scientists.”

Senegal provides some support for women who want to pursue careers in science; the government provides a number of bursaries to girls who get their baccalaureate, enabling them to study any of a number of government research institutions like ITA and the National Academy of Science and Technology.

Touré thinks that what is needed is for African governments to follow up programmes like this and prioritise support for research in the service of sustainable development.

Beyond the university

According to Dr Alhadji Wareme from Burkina Faso, knowledge is not the exclusive preserve of universities and the like, but is also to be found by building on traditional techniques and craftsmanship. He says women’s groups have made enormous strides in this regard in Burkina Faso, notably in the production of shea butter.

“The filière (producer to consumer chain) for shea butter produced by women’s organisations offers major opportunities in terms of invention and wealth creation in a rural or urban setting, providing livelihoods for women in particular, and a source of foreign currency for the country due to growing export demand,” he told IPS.

(Improving shea butter production in Burkina Faso – and neighbouring Mali and Niger – has been directed towards improving joint action throughout the sector, from producers through processors, distributors, exporters and consumers: the entirety is referred to in French as a filière.)

The foundation of these productive advances, Wareme underlines, is in tradition knowledge. According to him, Burkinabe women have long processed shea nuts for butter. With assistance from a development partner, the International Development Research Centre, these women have improved production techniques, using manure, taking better care of the health of the trees, as well as speeding up the extraction process using a machine press.

Wareme shares Yacine Touré’s views on weaknesses in sharing knowledge. “Women’s groups, combining traditional and and modern techniques, have succeeded in creating something good in the shea butter filière. What’s needed now is a programme to share these techniques more widely.”

Beyond that, Wareme says, challenges remain in “putting in motion a harmonised strategy in the management of knowledge and improvement of the system of innovation” to maintain growth in production, and establish access to markets for shea products internationally.

In Senegal’s southern region, 58 percent of deliveries take place at home without any medical assistance, according to state reproductive health officials in Kolda, a town 425 km from the capital, Dakar. Women in the region suffer from exceptionally high rates of fistula.

There are just seven doctors for every 100,000 people in Senegal; just one midwife for every 400,000 people. Credit: Dima Gavrysh/UNFPA

Obstetric fistula occurs when extended pressure damages the soft tissue in a woman’s pelvis during the process of giving birth. The tissue eventually dies from the lack of blood supply, and a hole develops between either the rectum and vagina or between the bladder and vagina, causing a woman to lose control of the flow of urine and sometimes faeces.

Dr Charles Antoine Diatta, president of the Medical Commission of Kolda’s regional hospital, says for every 20 deliveries at the hospital, at least nine women develop fistula. The cause, he says, is inadequate monitoring during pregnancy.

He explains to IPS, “In our southern regions, girls are married off between the ages of 13 and 15. They are right in the middle of adolescence and from a morphological perspective, their pelvic girdles are not yet fully developed. This is one of the causes of fistula because at delivery, labour is prolonged.”

According to Diatta, the cost of medical care for a fistula sufferer is between 70,000 and 150,000 CFA francs (up to $320).

“The extreme poverty in these communities means that fistula sufferers stay away from health facilities and often do not return after a consultation. Being ashamed of their condition also keeps them away, as well as their awareness of the odour they give off.”

Fatou Sow is aged 55 and comes from the village of Sarre Kemo in the Kolda region. She has fistula. Her lined, troubled face tells the story of the inner suffering of a woman burdened with the illness for over 15 years.

According to Sow, it was during her sixth delivery that fistula occurred. “My husband, who already has two other wives, left me. I felt bad and spent my days hiding from prying eyes,” she says.

She explains to IPS that it was one of her neighbours who told her about treatment for fistula. “I then went to the hospital in Kolda for medical examination. There I met the UNPFA awareness team (United Nations Population Fund). They took me in and I was successfully operated on – for free.”

But not all fistula sufferers in southern Senegal are so lucky. Roukhia Ba, a 24 year-old mother of one, developed fistula aged just 13.

“It was during my first delivery that I got fistula. My husband deserted me, my family too. I sometimes go to hospital, but often cannot for lack of money. We need the state to help us. So many of us are living with this condition,” she tells IPS.

According to Dr Jacques Diam Ndour, head doctor in Kolda district, the southern region of Senegal is very isolated and hospitals are in dire need of staff and equipment.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that there are seven doctors in Senegal for every 100,000 people, and one midwife for every 400,000 people. In the Kolda region which comprises around 850,000 inhabitants, there are nine doctors and four midwives. And in the region of Ziguinchor in the south-west, five doctors and two midwives attend to a population of 550,000.

These ratios fall far short of WHO standards. The 2006 global health report estimates that countries with less than 2.28 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1,000 people, generally do not meet the target of 80 percent of births attended to by skilled personnel and 80 percent of children vaccinated.

“We have a skilled staff shortage in this area. One must consider that all of Senegal’s midwives are in Dakar, in Thies in the central region and in St. Louis, the former colonial capital to the far north. We need to send more midwives to remote areas in the south, thus reducing birth-related complications,” Ndour tells IPS.

Adama Ndoye, who heads up the UNPFA’s reproductive health bureau, believes that if there are many fistula sufferers in southern Senegal, it is because the region is seen as very conservative and very rooted in tradition.

Ousmane Baldé, imam at the Grand Mosque in Kolda, laments the quality of life of fistula sufferers in the region but says religious leaders cannot be held responsible for the situation.

He tells IPS, “If a parent wants to marry off their 10, 11 or 12 year-old daughter to an octogenarian, we cannot refuse it. We simply see the process through and make sure it is conducted as tradition demands. I believe it is the state which is at fault here. The nursing complement is inadequate.”

According to Assane Diagne, head of public health in Kolda, the government has often undertaken joint campaigns with the UNFPA to fight against and eliminate fistula in Senegal.

“Between January and March this year, the state organised awareness campaigns and treatment for fistula. Doctors treated around ten women in Ziguinchor, further south, and in St. Louis, to the north. These campaigns are also an opportunity to train surgeons and gynaecologists practicing in these areas,” he tells IPS.

Ousmane Diaw, a Kolda high school senior, believes it necessary to create greater awareness amongst both young people and their parents.

He tells IPS, “Here, girls don’t get to go to school. They are married off at an early age. I have classmates who were taken out of school to be married off. Some died during childbirth and others developed fistula. I think it is important for parents to change their thinking, but we must also severely punish women who carry out female circumcision.”