Kolda region, Senegal

World Vision’s program to support local cereal banks in Senegal is helping farmers cope with the effects of food insecurity. 

It’s dinnertime in Meta’s home, a simple meal with food made from couscous and millet.  Meta sits beside by her mother, helping wherever she can.  She also shares her dreams.

“I want to become a teacher,” says the 10-year-old girl.  Meta came one step closer to that dream by staying in school this year.  But without the support of their local cereal bank, her father believes things would have been different for Meta.

“Maybe the money I saved to buy school supplies for these children, I would have used to buy food,” he says.  Like many farmers in this region, Meta’s parents suffered from food shortages in 2008 because the meagre harvest they reaped in the previous season was not enough to sustain them throughout the year.

Poor harvest = less food 

“This year was the hardest one,” says Meta’s father, Demba.  A poor harvest last year meant that many families ran out of food months earlier than usual.  Soaring global food prices hit Senegal particularly hard, as the country imports 50 per cent of its food.

This made life especially difficult for poor families like Demba’s, as they lived through the lean months before the next harvest.  To help farmers during this time, World Vision launched a project to help support cereal banks in Senegal.

During lean periods, when the market cost of food is sharply higher, cereal banks offer cheaper options.  Farmers can access cereals such as rice, wheat and millet at low prices with the benefit of paying later.  Many banks also allow farmers to repay their loans with some of their own grain, once it’s harvested

Cereal banks help

World Vision has provided training at the storehouses before, but this is the first time the agency has needed to help stock the banks with extra rice.   Meta’s father is thankful that he didn’t have to search for food elsewhere.  He’s also happy to have the cereal banks available, to use as storage facilities for his own food once it’s harvested.

“Every year, I keep my harvest in maize, millet, groundnuts here,” he says.  This allows Demba to store his excess food in a secure location free from animals and fire risks. Having reaped the benefits, he encourages people in his village to use the cereal bank “because it is very important,” Demba says with confidence.