PROPOSITION D'ORIENTATIONS STRATEGIQUES POUR L'ORGANISATION DE LA COMMERCIALISATION DES CEREALES AU MALI

The sector also provides 28% of the country's export revenue. Despite its potential, the agricultural sector in Mali faces numerous challenges, including soil degradation, limited market access, and low crop yields. The country's agricultural sector is dominated by cereal production, with 72% of cultivated land dedicated to this purpose. However, the systems of production are largely intensive, with only 2% of cereal land being cultivated with improved seeds, 26% receiving mineral fertilizer, and 28% being laboriously cultivated using animal traction. The dominant mode of production is manual cultivation, which is highly labor-intensive and of low productivity. The Development Economic and Social of Mali relies heavily on the promotion of agriculture, which remains the primary activity practiced by Malians. Agriculture must create wealth and ensure food security for a population that is growing at an average rate of 2.56% per annum, with a per capita cereal consumption of 214 kg. However, several challenges must be addressed to make agriculture the engine of economic growth. One of the key challenges facing the agricultural sector in Mali is the management of climate-related risks and the stabilization of production levels. The sector's high sensitivity to climate factors renders production levels unstable and highly unpredictable. To address this challenge, it is essential to master water management through hydro-agricultural development and water and soil conservation techniques, develop adapted crop varieties and technical itineraries, respect the agricultural calendar, and use appropriate agricultural inputs and equipment. Another significant challenge is the reduction of poverty, which hinders access to production factors and technical innovations that can improve productivity. Poverty is a major issue in rural areas, and efforts to reduce it must continue at all levels to provide producers with a minimum income that allows them to acquire or maintain a level of technicality that enables them to respond to economic incentives. Finally, the mobilization of financial resources and genuine financing of the agricultural sector is a critical challenge. Since 1993, the rural economy has been the preferred sector for investment, but since then, the trend of investments in the primary sector has been declining. However, in 2008, there was a change in the trend of agricultural investment with the launch of the rice initiative in production basins. The implementation of the agricultural component of the PDES requires the mobilization of 1,155 billion CFA francs, with an estimated level of subsidy of 432 billion CFA francs over five years in favor of producers to achieve the goal of 10 million tons of cereal production in 2012. The rice initiative, with its objective of producing 1 million tons of commercial rice in 2008/09, is a sub-component of this goal, aiming to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production.