Plaquette : Regional Action Plan for the Improvement of Irrigated Agriculture in the Senegal River Basin

REGIONAL ACTION PLAN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE IN THE SENEGAL RIVER BASIN 14 - Development Potential and benefits OMVS studies: The POGR’s cost and benefit studies proposed the introduction of scenarios for valley development and hence regulated water management The Water Char ter: . The water char ter adopted by the OMVS member countries corroborates the maintaining of artificial (or support) flooding. However, flood support is not systematic every year. Planning for development : In pr inciple, Water is not a major challenge for irrigation during the rainy season (July to October) given the contribution of the Senegal river’s other unregulated tributaries. The problem is most acute for off-season crops (November to June) where areas will be limited to 100,000 ha for the entire Valley (POGR), with turbinated flow and other uses. Potential of irrigable land: The greatest potential is in Senegal, which alone accounts for 60%. It is followed by Mauritania (32%) Guinea (5%) and Mali (3%). Out of this potential of 401,000 ha, only 212,937 ha or 56.87% have been developed. It should be noted that the four Member Governments of OMVS are willing to rely on the agriculture sector, especially irrigated agriculture, to meet the challenge of employment of young people and women and to reduce rice imports. The contribution of the diaspora is a non-negligible asset for the development of irrigated agriculture in the Senegal River basin. It is wor th mentioning as well the ex i s tence of managemen t and advisory suppor t structures which have been established to implement State policies in the field of land and water management