Nearly 200 billion injected into the local rice marketing circuit, according to Cheikh Kanté

[09:46, 28/11/2018] Damashu: XALIMANEWS: An amount of 199 billion CFA francs has been injected into the marketing of local rice as a result of the increase in production, revealed Tuesday the minister in charge of Senegal Emergent Plan (PSE), Cheikh Kanté.

"The annual production of rice has increased in a short time from 469,000 tons to 1,132,000 tons," said Kanté, during a meeting assessing the achievements of the PES, in the presence of village leaders and imams from Fatick's department.

The differential increase is 663,000 tons of rice, said Kanté, according to which 199 billion CFA francs were injected into the local rice marketing circuit.

In 2012, Senegal had "a huge deficit in rice production to the point" that it "was forced to import 800,000 tons of rice a year to reduce this deficit by several billion" CFA francs, he indicates.

According to him, this money represented a huge loss for the national economy, with each sack of imported rice helping to enrich the peasant of the exporting country.

"As an alternative to this state of affairs, President of the Republic Macky Sall bet on our lands, our water reserves, our hours of sunshine and our brave peasants," said Kanté, explaining that this approach has allowed Senegal to improve its rice production.

The evaluation meeting of the PES recorded the participation of the administrative authorities of the region, as well as religious authorities from other regions of Senegal.