(AfDB) - The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a loan of €39.30 million to the government of Senegal on Friday, 16 December 2022, to implement the first phase of the National Livestock Integrated Development Support Project.

The project will support national policy on sanitary and veterinary prophylaxis. It will support the national rollout of five vaccination campaigns against animal diseases. It will also support the development of a bivalent vaccine against Newcastle disease and fowl pox.

The financing will also rehabilitate regional diagnostic laboratories in Kaolack, Linguère, Matam, Tambacounda, Kédougou and Kolda and equip them with modern equipment. Thirty agents will receive training in the national epidemiological surveillance system and an additional 75 agents will be trained in the control of animal-based foodstuffs.

Marie-Laure Akin-Olugbade, Acting Vice President of the African Development Bank Group in charge of Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery said,"This programme will identify and implement the necessary synergies with the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zone projects, especially the North Agropolis project, in which the livestock sector is a priority. The main objective is to improve livestock production and productivity for a better supply both in terms of quantity and quality of meat and milk for future industrial units."

The programme will increase the availability of quality plant biomass by supporting ten producers of certified forage seeds. A 50-hectare fodder production farm for the incubation of young people and women will be created in Nguékhokh (Mbour department) and another 100 hectares will be set up for fodder entrepreneurs. The programme also plans to build 20 fodder densification and compaction units for young people and women, as well as 20 livestock and poultry feed manufacturing units.

The programme will also promote innovative production models, with the creation of 30 mini-dairy farms equipped with a bio-digester for the development of animal waste through the production of bio-gas, as well as 12 modern cattle fattening platforms (centres equipped with facilities to fatten lean animals for slaughter). A line of credit will be set up to support sheep fattening, breeder sheep farming, dairy farming, and pig farming. Lastly, three livestock markets and three mini-slaughter and poultry packing units will be built and equipped. The project will train 2,500 meat processors (butcheries, delicatessens, rotisseries) in sanitary standards and in the production of a range of items (hams, sausages, pastries).

The project intervention areas include Diourbel, Louga, Kaolack, Kolda, Dakar, Thiès, Fatick, Kaffrine, Sédhiou and Ziguinchor, where the focus will be on the milk, meat, and honey value chains. Some 32,000 value chain actors, including 16,000 women and youths, will benefit.

As of 31 July 2022, the African Development Bank Group's active portfolio in Senegal comprised 29 operations, with a total financing of €2.3 billion.