The Pan-African Institute for Citizenship, Consumers and Development (CICODEV Africa) organized yesterday a workshop to review the study on the state of food policies in Senegal. On this occasion, it was noted the main bottlenecks that affect the government’s orientations in food security. Recommendations were made to change the situation.
The CICODEV study has identified priorities for action to move towards sustainable food policies. At the political level, the first priority is to strengthen the will and commitment of political authorities to place food at the heart of territorial and local development strategies; to carry out agrarian reforms that will allow producers to have access to land; to promote and popularize a set of decentralized laws in order to give a more active role to local authorities (mayors in particular) in the development of sustainable local food systems; to advocate for the establishment of a “fund dedicated to local and national food production”…
On the social and economic level, the study suggests increasing consumer awareness and commitment to combat food dependency and reduce imports, as well as increasing producers’ incomes by setting up short distribution channels. It also recommends setting up industrial units to process raw materials from family farms; developing strategies for storage and crop protection infrastructures; and supervising the exploitation of non-timber forest resources.
On the technical and research front, the study recommends working on the production and dissemination of quality control standards for food production.
It also recommends promoting certification systems to support the development of value chains; strengthening research on integrated resource management; supporting agricultural and technological research; and setting up strategies and systems for the use of available documentation.
Source The As September 13th