Bananas and Food Security - Bioversity International

Afrique / Africa : D. Sidibé
La production bananière
au Sénégal
Demba Sidibé
Abstract – Banana production in Senegal
Senegal is a small banana-producer. The national production does not meet the
consumption needs and the country relies on imports from Côte d’Ivoire and the Republic
of Guinea. Bananas cultivated in Senegal are exclusively dessert bananas. There is no
large-scale processing of banana, processing is restricted to situations where the fruits
cannot be sold. In such cases they are dried for further preservation or boiled for
immediate consumption. Bananas are not exported; Senegal cannot compete with other
producers given the quantity and quality of its production.
Banana is cultivated in four different zones throughout the country. Plantations are small
to medium-sized (15 ha), private or belonging to groups of people. In the latter case,
plantations are managed by associations or groups of farmers who jointly own all
infrastructure and equipement used on the site.
All plantations are rainfed and receive an irrigation supplement during the dry season,
which can be quite long depending on the location. In the North, the dry season lasts for
2.5 months and the total rainfall is very low: 400 mm. Irrigation is carried out with the
help of motor-pumps, either from the river or from bore holes.
Major production constraints include: lack of good quality planting material, low level of
knowledge of the farmers about banana cultivation, lack or inadequate supply of credit,
equipment cost and technology level, problems linked to pests and diseases and poor
road networks.
Marketing channels are controlled by a few wholesalers who buy most of the national
production and at the same time import the product. They hold the cold storage facilities
and control the market.
Résumé
Le Sénégal est un petit producteur de bananes. La production nationale ne peut satisfaire
les besoins de la consommation et le pays doit compter sur les importations en prove-
ISRA, Kolda, Sénégal.
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