SENEGAL RIVER VALLEY RICE

The project consists of the development of 4,500 ha (gross) irrigated rice plantations and the construction of associated processing and storage facilities near Saint-Louis in Northern Senegal. It will also include an outgrower scheme with local smallholder farmers covering 1,500 ha with whom the project company will establish a contractual production and offtake partnership.

The project will support private investment in the agricultural sector, resulting in economic and social benefits including food security, import substitution, job creation, rural economic growth and strengthening the agricultural product base of Senegal. The project is fully in line with the Senegalese Government’s priorities as emphasised in the “Programme National d’Autosuffisance en Riz (PNAR)”.

The project involves activities to transform the use of marginal and degraded arable and pasture land and constitutes a water irrigation project for agriculture and, if in the EU, would fall under the provisions of Annex II of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive. The project company will be required to ensure compliance of the investment programme with standards established in the EIB environmental and social handbook which is based on the principles of EU legislation. Since some of the project sites are located in the buffer zone south of the Parc National des Oiseaux de Djoudj (PNOD), which is designated a protected area according to the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR), the planned activities in these areas are potentially sensitive and require a comprehensive biodiversity impact analysis.

The promoter is a private company not operating in the utilities sector and not having a status of a contracting authority. Thus it is not covered by the EU directives on procurement.