According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, cereal production in Mali reached 10.8 million tons in 2019/2020. Rice occupies a prominent place in eating habits in urban areas. The Office du Niger area is the country's main rice production site. One of 2SCALE Mali’s new partnerships, Siguida Yelen, is located in this area.
February 13, 2020
Training farmers on quality standard and traceability techniques
Improving the quality of rice: working on better storage
Siguida Yelen aims to make good quality white and parboiled rice accessible to around 50,000 low-income consumers, improving the living conditions of producers as well as other actors in the value chain, particularly women parboilers. One of the major problems that the cooperative is facing is the quality of rice. Therefore, in Mali, market rice is mainly of low quality because it is processed by small and artisanal shelling units. Thus the actors have identified the improvement of the quality of rice as a prerequisite for the sustainability of business relationships between stakeholders of the value chain. Improving the quality of rice unavoidably requires improvement of storage.
As a prelude to the start of the agricultural season, 2SCALE has initiated a capacity building program for the actors of the partnership Siguida Yelen. One of the activities is training for 100 farmers of which 25 women and 25 young people on drying, conservation, hygiene and traceability techniques.
Assetou Diakité participates in the training on behalf of her organisation. She appreciates the requirement of 2SCALE on women and youth involvement in all the levels of the value chain, as in her region women are not fully involved in production activities:
“We had a good knowledge of quality standards and traceability techniques because of this training. I will transmit this knowledge to the other members of my association so that we improve the quality of our rice” she adds.
As for the young Mamadou Coulibaly, another participant, the concept of traceability is something new for him:
“I had no knowledge of traceability before this training. We will adopt this good practice to ensure the loyalty of our customers wholesalers, retailers and consumers” he says.
