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Dairy Policy in Senegal: the Need to Overcome a
Technical Mindset
Sergio Dario Magnani, Véronique Ancey, Bernard Hubert
To cite this version:
Sergio Dario Magnani, Véronique Ancey, Bernard Hubert. Dairy Policy in Senegal: the Need to
Overcome a Technical Mindset. European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan,
2019, 31 (5), pp.1227-1245. �10.1057/s41287-019-00208-4�. �hal-03188274�
1
Dairy Policy in Senegal: the Need to Overcome a Technical Mindset
Abstract
Since the 1970s, the import of tax-free powdered milk has presented an easy solution to the growing demand for dairy
products in West Africa. Recent increases in agricultural price volatility have since contributed to a renewed interest
in local milk. However, while the present situation raises issues of food security, rural development and trade policy,
public policy remains overly focused on the technical dimensions of dairy development. This article presents the dairy
landscape of Senegal, a major regional importer of powdered milk, by considering development dynamics in light of
the interactions between technical and organizational models and livestock systems, in terms of relationships with
resources and environment, knowledge and social organization. Two implications are discussed: the need for effective
sectoral policy to tip the balance in favour of local milk; the need to base public action on a better understanding of,
and improved support for, livestock systems in all their diversity.
Keywords: Dairy policy, Public policy, Development Anthropology, Pastoralism, Intensification, Technical
changes, Senegal, West Africa.
Sergio Dario Magnani
1
· Véronique Ancey
2,3
· Bernard Hubert
4
Sergio Dario Magnani
semagnani@gmail.com
Véronique Ancey
Veronique.Ancey@fao.org
Bernard Hubert
bernard.hubert@inra.fr
1
Pastoral Development, Institute of Research and Application of Development Methods – IRAM,
Montpellier, France
2
Livestock and Poverty Reduction Policies in the Drylands, CIRAD, UMR ART-DEV,
Montpellier, France
3
FAO-AGAG, Animal Production and Genetic Resources Branch, Rome, Italy
4
INRA and EHESS - French National Institute for Agricultural Research, INRA/UMR
Ecodéveloppement - INRA Avignon, Avignon, France
Introduction
Since the 1970s, the import of tax-free powdered milk has presented an easy solution to meet the growing urban
demand for dairy products in Senegal. However, increasing agricultural commodity price volatility, which has
been particularly strong over the last decade (OCDE/FAO, 2017), has shown the limits of this strategy. Faced
with unstable powdered milk prices and the rapid growth of urban demand, national authorities and private
dairy businesses have shown a renewed interest in local milk production. The primary concerns of the
authorities are over macroeconomic imbalances, rural poverty and the urban population’s access to dairy
products. Private businesses have sought to position themselves in these promising markets through takeovers
and partnerships (Choplin, 2016; CTA Agritrade, 2014; Hansel and Goodison, 2015; Orasmaa et al., 2016). In
the last ten years, several dairy businesses have included local milk in their production in order to promote a
positive business image, diversify their supply sources and generate more value-added products (Corniaux,
2015).
2
In Senegal, this trend has reinforced a classical “technicist” approach which seeks to drive dairy development
by using animal production science to intensify production systems, notably by promoting the systematic use of
feeding inputs and a genetic improvement of cattle breeds. This model entails measures that reduce interactions
between livestock systems and the environment, such as the settlement of herders, fodder crop development,
the stabling of dairy cows and the adoption of specialized breeds. Far from being neutral, livestock production
intensification has a long and controversial history in the Sahel, where it has been at the heart of a techno-
scientific paradigm that has shaped interventions in pastoral development since colonial times (Behnke and
Scoones, 1993; Ellis and Swift, 1988; Homewood, 2008; Scoones, 1994).
While the technical dimensions of dairy production take center stage in public policy, the broader political and
economic context, as well as the historical trends of sectoral public action, are the subject of little debate. Dairy
development in Senegal has been characterized by limited, discontinuous public interventions, a disconnect
between local production systems and technical models and contradictions between trade and development
policies.
This article discusses the limits of a dairy development policy centered on technical issues. What are the
implications of focusing on technical issues and productivity? What other political, economic and social
dimensions are overlooked in this process? In what respect does this “technicist” approach constitute an
obstacle to the conception and implementation of a more integrated sectoral policy?
This article comprises two parts: firstly, a synthetic overview of the historical trends in dairy development in
Senegal from independence to the present day, in the broader and evolving political and economic context.
Secondly, an analysis of three case studies reflecting different dairy development models and successive forms
of public action in dairy production and collection. The first case study relates to intensive dairy farms
operating in the peri-urban area of the capital Dakar. The second presents the dairy basin around the secondary
city of Kolda in the southern region of Casamance, where a dozen mini-dairies collect the milk produced by
agro-pastoralists. The third describes a new social business model set up by an industrial dairy in the Senegal
River Valley in the north of the country, which relies on both powdered and fresh milk. The dairy processes
local milk collected from hundreds of pastoralists within the area surrounding the city of Richard Toll.
3
Methodology
From a methodological point of view, we regard the diversity of these case studies as an asset, demonstrating
how dimensions beyond the technical sphere can be central to the trajectory of dairy development interventions
in Senegal. Furthermore, we hold that the combined analysis of case studies and historical patterns of
development provides useful insights to help to develop an effective dairy policy at both national and regional
levels.
This research, which was conducted a part of a doctoral research project in development anthropology
(Magnani, 2016), is grounded in the social sciences and adopts an interdisciplinary framework that considers
how natural and living resources acquire different meanings and values for stakeholders (Hubert and Ison,
2011). Changes in food and development public policy touch on socio-economic issues (Binet, 2014; Gabas
and al., 2014). The research was carried out in a collective research program on agroecology and livestock
production in France, Brazil, Uruguay and Senegal
1
. Fieldwork was conducted in Senegal over three years
(from May to June 2011; from June to November 2012; and from June to December 2013), drawing on
standard qualitative methods from anthropology (participant observation, open interviews, analysis of local
written sources). National livestock and dairy development policies were examined through interviews with
public servants, development experts, researchers, leaders of livestock professional bodies, pastoralists and
herders, and non-governmental organization workers. Dairy development dynamics were thus explored in the
three areas mentioned above.
1. Historical trends in dairy development public action in Senegal
The post-independence period (1960-1985): the failure of state intervention and the growth of powdered
milk
After independence, Senegal inherited a segmented market with, on one hand, powder-based or imported dairy
products for the expatriate population and, on the other, local milk and derived products historically traded
locally or through mid- and long-range trade channels (Vatin, 1996: 126-130).
1
Mouve, funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR).
4
The first attempts at dairy industrialization in Africa, at the end of the 1960s, sought to imitate the Indian Flood
model. In order to accelerate industrial development and cooperative organization, donated powdered milk was
to be sold in order to finance local milk value chains, which, it was hoped, would then have gradually replaced
the imports. Whereas the model played a positive role in India, where it was supported by a political
commitment to autonomy and dairy development, it was a relative failure in West Africa for both local and
international reasons (Vatin, 1996). This was particularly true in Senegal, where a state-run dairy industry
(UCOLAIT), set up in Saint-Louis, operated for only four years (1968-1972). Though local milk collection had
achieved promising results (200 000 liters in 1971), major production and marketing failures, combined with
bad management, led the dairy to bankruptcy (Vatin, 1996: 142-146).
In the 1970s, powdered milk imports increased sharply (from less than 50 000 t in 1973 to over 100 000 t in
1977; Duteurtre and Corniaux, 2013: 35), mainly because of demographic growth, urbanization and trade
policy. In reaction to this trend, the Senegalese government implemented a seven-year dairy development
project, Projet de Développement de la Production Laitière intensive et semi-intensive dans la région des
Niayes
(
Project for intensive and semi-intensive dairy development in the Niayes region, 1982-1989), in the
countryside around the capital Dakar. The project, run by the Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles
(
Senegalese Agricultural Research Institute, ISRA), aimed to popularize new feed techniques and imported
dairy breeds in order to create more intensive and specialized livestock systems. An experimental farm
provided livestock feed and dairy cows, as well as zootechnical and veterinary supervision, while a cooperative
was created to market milk in Dakar. The large majority of the new dairy farms did not survive after the project
ended (Mbaye, 1989), but the intensive dairy production model persisted at a small scale.
Structural adjustment and liberalization (1985-2000): the development of small-scale dairy
processing
During this period of progressive state withdrawal, several innovative initiatives were launched in dairy
production, collection and processing. At the beginning of the 1990s, Nestlé developed a network to collect
local milk in the pastoral areas surrounding the city of Dahra, a major national livestock market. Collected milk
was dried and mixed with imported powdered milk in the Nestlé plant in Dakar. The operation’s model of