Linking Infrastructure, Finance, and Farms to Cashew (LIFFT)
Food for Progress Senegal-Factsheet
Improving Infrastructure
- 84 km of rural agriculture feeder roads constructed or rehabilitated, linking more than 50 villages to markets
- 1,512 cash for work laborers employed
- 8 storages rehabilitated (7,609 m3) for 6 Cooperatives
- 1 new storage (720 m3) constructed
Increasing Cashew Nut Production and Quality
- 9,205 farmers trained on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) at 7 demonstration plots
- 8,510 farmers applied GAP on 16,884 ha of cashew plantations
- Cashew farmer census conducted for 11,905 farmers, including 2,165 women
- 513 farmers certified in organic cashew production
- 18 nurserymen trained and supported with equipment; 4 modern shade structures and 24 chainsaws granted for pruning
- 68,150 improved cashew seedlings produced to support reforestation and plantation renewal, including 40,500 trees planted in the new cashew producing region in Fatick
- 40 kg of seed and scions of new varieties imported from Vietnam; multiplication underway with the ISRA research institute and accredited nurseries.
Cooperative Development
- 11 Cooperatives established or reinforced, including 3,434 members (initial stage of establishment).
- 408 Cooperative management staff received training on capacity building, administration and financial management, member management, and services development.
- 24 scales provided (8:1 ton and 16: 200 kg), office furniture (16 sets of tables, chairs, and cabinets), and IT kits (6 sets of computers, printers and internet modems) granted
- 16 cashew transportation means (8 motorcycles and 8 tricycles) granted to support RCN collection
- 3,295 jute bags provided for post-harvest cashew nut quality retention
- 24,759 MT collected by cooperatives members (passive and active) between 2020 to 2022.
Improving Access to Finance, Market Linkages and Trade
- $ 2,212,973 in financial transactions and micro-finance loans to cooperatives and members
- 104 women from two cooperatives financed for market gardening through the credit scoring activity
- 22 commercial contracts signed; linking buyers and cooperatives
- $831,579 loaned in 2022 by the Cashew Fund to 5 processors in the SeGaBi region; used to purchase of 894.83 MT from Cooperatives for a value of $691,383
- $550,000 loaned to two processors in Senegal in 2023 through the Cashew Fund
- Establishment of a Senegal cashew sector Steering Committee to influence policy
- Warehouse receipt system (WRS) pilot being trialed Cooperatives; 808 MT was stocked in 2022
- Food Safety Regulation for Cashew Processing Companies in Senegal at concept note stage
- Diagnostic study on Cross-border trade of RCN and the establishment of Single Cashew Market in SeGaBi underway
LIFFT-UP Information Management
- Development of Cashew Market Information System & Indicator Management System
- 2,057 cashew farms mapped and georeferenced to facilitate organic certification for farmers
- 7,052 people accessing cashew market data through social media networks and the project website
Funding for the LIFFT-Cashew project provided by the Food for Progress Program of the United States Department of Agriculture
Website: www.lifftproject.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lifft-cashew-project
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LIFFTCashewSFL/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFFTCashew
SFL PR/COM- BFS