Regional Markets

3 Cases
Photo: AAS
3.5 Improving access to local markets for women
groundnut farmers in Senegal
Ibrahima Niass, Ramata Niass, Moussa Faye and Fatou Mbaye
Introduction
Originating in the Amazonian Basin,
groundnuts were introduced into Senegal in
the 19 th century by the French and quickly
became an important commercial crop.
Today, groundnuts are still an important
part of the national and local economy, used
as processed outputs (as seeds, oil, paste or
candies) and processing by-products (such
as oilcake or combustibles). After independence,
groundnut production expanded
and further entrenched itself as the most
important export commodity. While today
groundnuts have been overtaken by another
traditional food commodity (fish) and mining
(phosphates), they still have a strong
From seed to market
After planting, it takes between three and
four months for the groundnuts to mature.
After harvesting, they are dried in heaps,
and thrashed—manually using wooden
sticks—to separate the nut from the shell.
The next steps are winnowing, cleaning
and bagging the nuts for storage or the
market. The official price of undecorticated
nuts is 165 CFA franc per kilogram, and
decorticated bring in 350–400 CFA franc per
kilogram. Decorticated nuts can further be
crushed into oil or grilled to produce paste,
which yield 900 CFA franc per litre or 700 CFA
franc per kilogram respectively. Flour is produced
from groundnuts and sold locally.
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