Superior rice varieties and solar irrigation to bolster food supplies and farmer incomes in Senegal

GIE Kénié-Kéniéba, a consortium of rice producers in the village of Gouloumbou in the Tambacounda, region of central Senegal, is set to become the leading breeder and supplier of two superior varieties of rice seeds. One of these breeds is suitable for the rainfed lowland areas whilst the other one is suitable for the well-drained soils of the plateau. These varieties are proved to be more stress-resistant, requiring fewer inputs such as fertilizers and water, whilst also producing higher yields. The propagation of these varieties offers new opportunities for smallholder farmers to increase their production output and contribute to the overall food security of the region.

The consortium was created by Mamadou Lamine Diallo and Mahamadou Aïdara, who, after spending more than ten years in Spain supporting Senegalese migrants, decided to return to Gouloumbou to promote the economic development of the area and create employment opportunities for young people and women in the agricultural sector. Set up in 2006, today the GIE Kenie Kenieba has 24 members, comprising of 10 men and 14 women, who collectively own 50 hectares of land. Currently 15 hectares are used for their horticultural business, with the rest of the land remaining unexploited due to financial and technical constraints.

Like many other farmers in the area, GIE Kenie Kenieba used to grow rice in the lowlands, along the River Gambia, during the winter rainy season when the valleys fill up with water. But they stopped in 2015 after losing 15 hectares of cultivated rice following a major flood. The increasingly frequent floods and more extensive periods of drought ushered in by climate change, combined with a chronic scarcity of good quality seeds, have been major obstacles to the development of the rice sector in the region. Like GIE Kenie Kenieba, many other rice growers in the area have abandoned lowland rice cultivation to concentrate on market gardening, which entails growing vegetables on a plateau.

However, the consortium has now turned their attention to irrigated upland rice cultivation and seed multiplication, which they see as an opportunity to expand their business in a way that brings benefit to the surrounding communities.

In an effort to increase the availability of quality seeds in the Tambacounda region, GIE Kenie Kenieba is embarking upon the propagation of the ISRIZ 15 and the NERICA upland varieties, as well as their distribution amongst other rice producers in the region. Their plan is to create a community-managed seed bank to ensure quality standards and meet certification level of these superior varieties.

Besides yielding three times as much as other conventional African species, the stress-tolerant NERICA variety, intended for irrigated cultivation in the plateau, grows more quickly, maturing within 70-90 days, compared to the 120-day growing period of the locally available lowland variety, allowing farmers to grow two crops per year. The proximity of the land to the Gambia River also means that water is available for irrigation throughout the year. The ISRIZ 15 is another high-yielding variety suitable for rainfed lowland areas, capable of producing up to 13 tonnes per hectare which is nearly double the harvest of the local SAHEL variety. It also stands out for its grain quality both in terms of taste and durability.  

Making these engineered rice varieties widely available to Gouloumbou farmers will give them a better chance of adjusting to unpredictable rainfalls and enable them to grow rice even outside the rainy season, during the so-called ‘hunger period’ whilst waiting to harvest other crops.

GIE Kenie Kénieba is already equipped with a solar pumping kit with a capacity of 80 m3/hour which they use to irrigate their vegetables. As this solar pump cannot satisfy the water needs of their entire range of crops alone, it has been so far necessary to supplement it with a diesel motor pump. However, through their collaboration with Energy 4 Impact and the Water and Energy 4 Food programme, the consortium recently acquired a second 60m3/hour solar irrigation system, which will hasten their planned transition to clean energy sources.

This second pump supports the production of seeds of the new rice varieties, obtained through the Senegalese Agency for Agricultural and Industrial Development (SODAGRI) and the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research (ISRA), on two hectares of their land. Once the seeds are certified by the Regional Directorate of Rural Development, the consortium will become an important local propagation centre for ISRIZ and NERICA seeds in the region.

While the members of GIE Kenie Kenieba have more than 15 years of experience in winter rain-fed lowland rice production, they have never cultivated the upland irrigated varieties. Now the consortium is availing itself of both solar technologies and new agronomic skills, acquired through their collaboration with Energy 4 Impact, to master irrigated rice cultivation and develop a new business model in order to become the ISRIZ and NERICA seed distributor of choice.