This briefing underlines the importance – for States and its technical and financial partners – to invest as much in supporting farmers’ organizations and agricultural advisory services as in developing new irrigated areas. It draws on the experience of three sites in the region : Bagré in Burkina Faso, Sélingué in Mali and Anambé in Senegal.
The key recommendations are:
• Governments need to improve access to seasonal credit if they want a return on investment in large-scale irrigation for rice farming.
• Producer organisations have an equally important role to play, but a lack of legitimacy and of organisational and management capacity limits their ability to respond to farmers’ needs.
• To be effective, a credit system has to enable producers to withstand a poor farming season and must take account of market delays which impact on the following season. Failures in risk management, rather than lack of bank guarantees, are the major obstacle to less well-off farmers getting access to credit.
• To limit financing needs and improve incomes, agricultural research and extension must prioritise the development of less costly rice cultivation systems and practices.
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