Kolda, Oct 14 (APS) – The rice value chain development project (PDCVR) and the Senegalese Agricultural Research Institute (ISRA) signed an agreement worth around 1.2 billion CFA francs to make the Séfa center in the Sédhiou region, announced Monday in Kolda (south), its coordinator, Wally Diouf.
”We will put in place everything the center needs. We signed a global agreement with ISRA for around 1 billion 200 million for the acquisition of vehicles, equipment, rehabilitation of the center, a transformer, a generator, drilling to put our researchers in good working conditions. performance,” said Dr. Wally Diouf.
He was speaking at the end of a visit to this center which was closed in the 1980s because of the Casamance crisis.
”(…) we must rehabilitate the center to allow ISRA to be able to increase its research in the production of certified seeds, work is underway for the construction of the training center, the refectory, storage stores, the laboratory , drying units, drilling etc.,” he said.
With the rehabilitation of the Séfa center, the project intends to support and promote research to move towards achieving food sovereignty, said its coordinator.
“We must ensure that we have good quality seeds, and if we have had seeds in recent years it is thanks to Africa rice, and we cannot have an institute like ISRA and continue to have seeds that are produced by another structure,” lamented Wally Diouf.
“This is why we felt that we must rehabilitate this center so that ISRA deploys the entire team and moves towards the production of certified seeds to ensure our food sovereignty,” recommended Mr. Diouf.
The coordinator of the rice value chain development project met rice producers in the villages of the districts of Dabo and Dioulacolon.
He noted the good development of the rice growing areas under experimentation with the introduction of the Sahel 108 and Nerica L19 varieties which give hope to rice farmers in the Kolda department.
Concerning the population’s grievances relating to mechanization, Wally Diouf invited the private sector to invest in this sector to support the development of the rice value chain in the Kolda region.
“For your grievances which mainly relate to mechanization, I am taking the opportunity here to invite the private sector to invest in this sector to put mechanization centers in all the departments of Senegal and it is a promising sector,” he said. -he pleaded.
MG/ASB/OID
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