Global IssuesMAURITANIA: Fresh Attempt at Irrigated Agriculture
In a bid to reduce food insecurity, the Mauritanian government is turning to several new approaches to agriculture, including expanded irrigation schemes, popularising new crops and harnessing the energy of recent graduates.
The new strategies follow a period that focused on training for smallholder farmers, the introduction of mechanisation for large-scale production, as well as guaranteeing good prices to farmers as means of ensuring a steady supply of farm produce.
Ahead of the 2011-2012 growing season in this West African country, 125 unemployed graduates were put through basic training in farming techniques. They have taken charge of 1,500 hectares of land on the M'Pourié plain, on the banks of the Senegal River not far from the southern Mauritanian city of Rosso.
Rabia Mint Zeidane, an economics graduate, is managing a field of ten hectares not far from Rosso. She's been working here since May. Under the hot sun, far from family and friends, she spends the whole day clearing irrigation canals alongside her two labourers to ensure adequate water for her rice beds.
She declares herself determined to succeed in a domain traditionally reserved for men. Mint Zeidane told IPS that, like her counterparts, she has benefited from an agriculture training programme, access to a plot of land, a grant equivalent to roughly 1,430 dollars as well as two dairy cows.
Aside from the programme involving unemployed graduates, the authorities have also introduced wheat farming in a programme covering six of the country's 13 regions.
The government has ambitious plans to extend the country's irrigated acreage. Last year, not more than 20,000 hectares were irrigated, but for the season now under way, it is expected to exceed 30,000 ha, including 3,700 hectares devoted to growing rice. Wheat, vegetables and fruit will also be grown, depending on the varying characteristics of the soil.
In the capital, Nouakchott, and around Rosso and other areas, there were intensive preparations beginning in March, to make credit available, raise awareness, assess and improve access to water, and to put in place measures against potential pests.
Under pressure due to food insecurity and the rising cost of essential commodities such as rice, wheat and sugar, the government seems to be determined to make up for lost time.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service