Announcement of Three Million Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars Credit for Casamance Rice Project in Senegal on May 13, 1971

• INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION 1818 H STREET. N.W .. WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 \y IDA Press Release No. 71/19 13, 1971 Subject: $3. 7 million credit for Casamance rice project in Senegal The International Development Association (IDA) has approved a credit equivalent to $3.7 million in support of the expansion of rice production in Casamance, the traditional rice-growing region of Senegal. Casamance in the southwest is a promising area for rice production where at present about 80% of domestically grown rice is produced. Senegal is West Africa's largest rice importer, which involves a foreign exchange cost of about $25 million. The project's principal • objective is to increase the domestic production of rice, groundnuts and foodcrops. At present about 80% of the domestically produced rice is grown in the Casamance region. By replacing imported rice with domestically grown rice and with the increased exports of groundnuts the project at maturity will generate a foreign exchange gain of about $1.7 million a year. The project involves the improvement of about 5,000 acres of existing swamp rice land through the provision of water control works and the ~ultivation of 23,500 acres of rain-fed rice to be grown in rotation with grol.llldnuts and food crops on land cultivated by about 5,000 farm families. The project will be under the supervision of a project unit responsible to the Ministry of Rural Development and managed by a Senegalese director assisted by a qualified staff • • /more IDA P.R. No. 71/19 - Senegal - rice project - 2 - The project also provides for the construction of i.rrigation and • drainage works for the existing swamp rice land, the construction of 24 rice mills and appropriate storage, the clearing of land for the new areas of rain-fed rice, the i.mprovement of project area roads, and the provision of credit hy the Banque Nationale de Developpement du Senegal (BNDS) to proj~ct cooperatives for relending to their members. The total cost of the project is estimated at $4.8 million of which the Government will provide $1. 0 million and the farmers $DO, 000. The foreign exchange component is approximately $2.2 million. The project is the third Bank Group operation in agriculture in Senegal and was identified under the FAO/IBRD Cooperative Program in February 1970. 1970. It was subsequently prepared under the Program in August The credit 1• being made to the Republic of Senegal and is for a • peTiod of SO year•, including 10 years of grace. It is interst free, but carries a service charge of 3/4 of 1% to meet IDA's administrative expenses. - 0 - •