In total, 40,000 smallholders in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger will directly benefit from the benefits of the Strengthening Networks and Institutional Capacities in Plant Improvement project for the development of resilient crops that meet the needs of Peasants of West Africa (ABEE), Ousmane Ndoye, its coordinator, said Wednesday in Dakar.

“The ABEE project will directly benefit 40,000 smallholder farmers in the three target countries, namely Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger,” Dr. Ndoye assured, among others, when presenting it at a La Délé press conference. Gation of the European Union in Senegal.

He stressed that this is a project funded by the EU for an estimated 8 million euros over a period of five years in these three Sahel countries.

“It aims to implement a more coordinated approach to varietal breeding in these countries, by placing breeders of five target speculations, namely peanuts, cowpeas, sorghum, fonio and millet, from these countries in the heart of action to improve, modernize their breeding practices and better identify market demands”, explained Mr. Ndoye.

He emphasized that the aim was to contribute to the sustainable increase in agricultural productivity and the resilience of smallholder farmers in the face of population growth, economic vulnerability and climate change.

“The exchange of information and genetic material between the different actors through the animation of a regional network will be at the heart of this project,” he said.

In this perspective, “farmers and other key actors in targeted value chains will contribute to the definition of varietal types by profiling the selection products that best meet local needs and market demand,” he added& acute;.

At the same time, the project coordinator cited the digitization and digitization of breeding programs to improve the quality of documentation and data analysis, as well as the integration of modern practices, such as the use of molated markers. Circular to complete the phenotype selection.

As part of its participation in the World Alliance of Climate Press Clubs conference and to “highlight the environmental dynamics of a region that is particularly vulnerable to climate change”, the EU Delegation in Dakar in On Wednesday, collaboration with the Press Club of Senegal presented two projects aimed at “increasing agricultural production and the resilience of farmers.”

These are the ABEE (Strengthening networks and institutional capacities in plant improvement for the development of resilient crops meeting the needs of farmers in West Africa) and CASSEcs (Carbon Sequestration and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in (agro)). Sylvopastoral Ecosystems in the Sahelian (CILSS States).

The theme of the meeting was: “When farmers in the Sahel adapt to climate change”.