Mauritania - Islamic Development Bank

strategy giving priority to strengthening
primary care provision especially in rural areas.
• Substantially raising allocation in the budget
for health system interventions with increased
resources devoted to disease prevention
and control program and the training of
primary health staff (nurses, midwifes and
general practitioners) and community health
promoters.
• Increase the deployment and retention of
the trained health staff for remote and needy
areas to augment the efforts of partners to
expedite interventions addressing the high
IMR and MMR.
3. PILLAR II: Rural Development and Food
Security
3.1 Current Status
71. Agriculture has not been performing well
in Mauritania. On average, the contribution of
agriculture to GDP was 16.7% during the 1991-
2008 period with crops (agriculture sensu stricto)
representing 3.7% and livestock 13%. In absolute
terms, agriculture production has not been
declining but stagnating. Stagnation had many
causes. In rain fed areas where rainfall is low and
erratic, water harvesting and soil conservation
techniques to improve production exist but not
adopted on a large scale. There has been little or
inadequate effort to support rain fed agriculture
and livestock despite its importance in rural
economy.
72. Food security is a major concern. Cereal
production in Mauritania supplies only one
third of the population’s needs. Commercial
imports and food aid (mainly wheat and rice)
supply the balance. In recent years, the level of
food supply has been low, particularly in remote
areas, and prices of traditional cereals (millet and
sorghum in particular) in the production areas
have increased especially in the wake of 2008
global food crisis. Adverse climatic conditions
also caused a decrease in crop production adding
to food insecurity affecting almost one third of
the total population, particularly the rural poor.
Malnutrition in rural areas is rampant and the
most susceptible group includes infants, and
pregnant women. The Government has acted to
in coordination with its development partners
to deal with food crises. However, the second
Strategic Framework for the Fight against Poverty
(PRSP II) for 2006-2010 and various instruments
of the Special Intervention Program created to
address food insecurity had limited impact and
food production continued to stagnate.
3.2. Constraints
73. There are several constraints faced by
agriculture in Mauritania:
• Annual area under cultivation did not increase
and yields remain low by international
standards.
• In rain fed areas where rainfall is low and
erratic, water harvesting and soil conservation
techniques to improve production exist but not
adopted on a large scale. There has been little
or inadequate support for rain fed agriculture
and livestock despite its importance in rural
economy.
• In irrigated areas, agriculture is performing
poorly despite the significant investments
made over the past 30 years. This is due to
a combination of factors--natural disasters
(floods, locust, etc.), institutional failures
(mismanagement, credit and land tenure
issues), and a weak investment climate
(inadequate infrastructure, volatility in
international prices of cereals, overvaluation
of the exchange rate). Local officials in
Rosso informed the MCPS mission that
abandonment of irrigated land by farmers is a
serious problem and farmers that met with the
mission indicated that Government subsidies
were essential for them to survive. This has all
contributed to the inability of increases in the
size of irrigated areas under new schemes to
compensate for areas put out of cultivation. In
2009, only 8,000ha were cultivated compared
to an average of 17.000 ha planted annually in
last ten years.
• With its important livestock population (11
million of sheep, goats, cattle and camels),
Mauritania is self sufficient in red meat and
exports a substantial volume (estimated at
MCPS for Mauritania, 2011-2015 19