Creating social business to develop the agro-industrial supply chain in Senegal

Title Social Business et Innovative development of the agro-industrial chain in Thiès Region (SB-AGROIN)

Location Thiès Region, Senegal

Duration 2019 -2021

Project Leader ASES – Agricoltori Sostenibilità e Sviluppo

Partners ARCS – Arci Cultura Solidali, AOI – Associazione delle organizzazioni italiane di cooperazione e solidarietà internazionale, Glocal Impact Network , PIN Foundation, Yunus Social Business Centre University of Florence

Local Partners Green Senegal, Institut Sénégalais de Recherche Agricole (ISRA), Association JEF

Funding AICS – Agenzia Italiana di Cooperazione allo Sviluppo

 

Context

In the region of Thiès, the scarcity of access to water, low skills in the cultivation, production and marketing of fruit and vegetables, and the low quality of production factors lead to the abandonment of arable land and contribute to malnutrition. Local inhabitants do not consider agriculture an income-generating or food-securing activity.

The SB-AGROIN project intervenes in this context to reverse this trend: increased fruit and vegetable production generated by innovative and sustainable techniques (from a social, economic and environmental point of view) can contribute to food security for local producers engaged in self-consumption and can constitute an income increase for those who locally process and/or market the cultivated products.

The adoption of improved seeds and agricultural innovations – including the joint management of water wells, solar panels, drip irrigation pumps and the adoption of “Agritube” systems – can increase production yields and save water resource.

The SB-AGROIN project intends to adopt all these practices in order to develop and strengthen the local agro-industrial supply chain. To ensure these objectives, project activities include

  • transfer of technical and management skills to small producers
  • adoption of innovative agricultural production methods marketed by the social enterprises created by the project
  • development of a fruit and vegetable supply chain aimed at increasing agricultural products processed and sold on the market

 

General Objective

ARCO’s Social Economy and Sustainability Management Unit and Circular Innovation & Sustainable Commodities Unit, together with the Yunus Social Business Centre of the University of Florence, were involved in the project. The first to support the creation of social enterprises and the establishment of a revolving fund at a local microfinance institution. The latter supported the construction of a processing unit for the marketing of agricultural products in the municipality of Keur Moussa.

 

Our contribution

The SB-AGROIN project involved 2 social enterprises:

  • DerGi, set up thanks to the project, which aims to provide services/products in the field of sustainable agriculture, including composting, installation of integrated irrigation and Agritube systems, construction of wells, supply of quality seeds in the Dakar and Keur Moussa areas.
  • Tooli Jandeer, a fruit and vegetable processing enterprise run by the women’s group part of the Réseau des Femmes Productrices et Transformatrices (RFPT), established in 2016, whose activities have been strengthened thanks to the project.

The Social Economy and Sustainability Management Unit, together with the YSBCUF, supported the entire process of setting up the DerGi enterprise and strengthening Tooli Jander, through the training of local experts and consultants, the realisation of business plans and market analyses aimed at strengthening the enterprises’ managerial sustainability.

In parallel, the Social Economy and Sustainability Management Unit, worked to establish a revolving fund at a local microfinance institution to enable the financing of project-supported enterprises, local producers and community camps in the areas of intervention. The agreement was signed with the Caurie Microfinance Institute. The fund was created to allow project-supported enterprises, individual small local producers (PPL) and their regroupements paysans (cooperatives, associations, GIEs) of the 5 community camps in the Keur Moussa Municipality beneficiaries of SB -AGROIN to access credit to finance investments for start-up activities and agricultural production and marketing of producers in the camps.
To enable project beneficiaries to access finance, ARCO worked closely with a local expert.

The Circular Innovation and Sustainability Management Unit was involved to ensure that the construction project in Keur Moussa of a food processing unit met the required hygiene and health standards for the marketing of products.
The processing unit was intended to strengthen the activities of the Réseau des Femmes Productrices et Transformatrices. The RFPT women were involved in two rounds of comprehensive training focusing on the production of fruit juice and jam and the management of the Keur Moussa processing unit.

Read more on the Social Economy and Circular Innovation & Sustainable Commodities Units