PRECAD (Projet de Renforcement des Capacités pour une Agriculture Durable) was developed by the Syngenta Foundation to support farmers become more professional and generate higher yields and income.

For 25 years the Syngenta Foundation and its predecessors have been supporting agricultural research in Mali through the Institute of Rural Economy and in particular the Agricultural Research Station of Cinzana. This fruitful partnership with the Government of Mali amongst others contributed to introducing and developing numerous pertinent and efficacious seed varieties and technologies for semi-arid areas in West Africa. Farmer communities of Cinzana and Katiena in Mali needed to recognize the value of high-performance seed varieties and technologies to utilize them in a professional way to generate income.

 

The Syngenta Foundation, with the rural communities, initiated the PRECAD Project in 2006 to make farmers more professional growers by strengthening their capacities through targeted, demand-driven training.

 

 

PRECAD's objective is to improve livelihoods and food security of rural communities in the Ségou Region through greater productivity in pearl millet-based farming systems and market development of farmer-based enterprise.

The Foundations partnership in Mali is moving the focus of its activities from sorghum, cowpea and millet research to enterprise development. The new direction aims to stabilize and increase the income of farmers. The new PRECAD programme has hired a full-time agronomist, Salif Kanté, with extensive experience in family farming production systems in Mali. Dr Kanté will be introducing farmers to the new activities:

Millet and sorghum producers will be able to store their surplus harvests in commonly-owned storage facilities, constructed with joint Foundation and grower funding.

Instead of selling crops at harvest time, when prices are lowest, farmers will be able to sell them through Faso Jigi when prices are more attractive. Faso Jigi, is one of Mali's largest farmer associations with 134 cooperatives. It has been funded in part by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
Faso Jigi has links to commercial banks, making it easier to leverage resources for onward lending to growers through microfinance institutions.

As a condition of membership, farmers first prove to Faso Jigi that they are producing surplus grain. The Foundation is re balancing its support of the Cinzana Research Station, concentrating on funding operational activities, with gradual withdrawal from direct station support by 2010. This year, for the first time, as a member of Mali's national agricultural research committee, the Foundation is considering research proposals on biofuels, carbon sequestration by acacia senegal and jatropha, a model farm, and nitrogen fixation.

 

The projects' target farmers' communities constitute 99 villages with approximately 65'000 inhabitants. Starting with 25 villages the goal for end of 2010 is to: