The agricultural sector is one of the pillars of Senegal's economy with an estimated contribution of 15 percent to the GDP in 2018 and a significant portion of the population in rural area (60%) which continues to depend directly on it for their livelihoods.

Given the strategic nature of the agricultural sector for the socio-economic development of the country and for the food security of the population, it is essential that policymakers can rely on quality data to make evidence-based decisions.

The Annual Agricultural Survey (Enquête Agricole Annuelle - EAA), administered by the Directorate of Analysis, Forecasting and Agricultural Statistics (DAPSA), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Equipment, is the main survey that provides annual information on the agricultural sector in Senegal.

Through the AGRISurvey programme - now part of the 50x2030 Initiative to close the agricultural data gap - FAO has been providing technical and financial support to DAPSA since 2017, to expand the EAA, using the AGRIS methodology. Two annual survey cycles, the EAA 2017-2018 and EAA 2018-2019, were successfully implemented with more and higher quality data generated.

The conduct of the 2019–2020 annual survey has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic so that the second visit of data collection, focusing on providing detailed data on livestock and horticulture had to be cancelled.

Although based exclusively on the first phase of the survey, DAPSA has published the EAA 2019–2020 survey report with FAO support. The report provides essential information about the country’s agricultural sector and emphasizes the characterization of rainfed farms in terms of area sown, the use of inputs and agricultural practices:

• Mix-agriculture remains predominant with more than 40 percent of households combining livestock with crops activties.
• Small farms are predominant with an average cultivated area per household estimated at 3.36 hectares and over one third of the cultivated plots covering less than one hectare;
• The majority of households are headed by men, with barely one in ten households being headed by women;
• Groundnuts and millet remain the dominant crops with more than half of the plots;
• The use of certified seeds and mineral fertilizers remain low (less than 25 percent of plots);
• Pesticides are mainly used for economically important crops such as groundnuts (45 percent), cotton (95 percent), irrigated rice (58 percent) and watermelon (52 percent);
• The level of mechanization of agriculture remains very low with the dominant use of small materials and equipment harnessed at all stages of cultivation;
• Motorized equipment, used very little (barely 3 percent of plots), is generally used for soil preparation.

The full report, as well as the excel sheet of main tables, can be downloaded through DAPSA’s website here.

DAPSA also makes other resources on EAA2017-2018 and EAA 2018-2019 available to users for in-depth analyzes:

• Full report of EAA 2017-2018 and EAA 2018-2019
• EAA statistical tables to be downloaded from the SSN Senegal Open Data platform
• Anonymized micro-data files from the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 EAA

Fore more information, visit the country webpage.