Official statistics are essential for enabling evidence-based decision-making by government agencies, civil society, the private sector, and international organizations as well as for establishing accountability frameworks to which representative bodies are held. Yet, the production and dissemination of data alone are not enough to ensure these purposes are reached. This is why dedicated efforts toward helping the intended end-user analyze, interpret and ultimately effectively use the statistical information published by national statistical agencies has been a core constituent of the AGRISurvey statistical capacity development programme of FAO.

Promoting greater alignment between user needs and the offer of data, building awareness on the availability of national agricultural survey data, strengthening statistical literacy, as well as promoting policy dialogue, networking and coordination among national and international stakeholders are the main routes taken by the AGRISurvey to spur the effective use of agricultural survey data to inform sectoral policy making and monitoring processes.

In Senegal, FAO supported the Direction de l’Analyse, de la Prévision et des Statistiques Agricoles (DAPSA) in drafting a series of thematic papers using data from the annual agricultural survey (Enquête Agricole Annuelle - EAA). Among these, a policy note entitled "L’accès au financement par les ménages agricoles au Sénégal” seek to untangle distinctive features of the access to financing by agricultural households.

Main findings from the survey

Findings from the EAA show that access to financing for agricultural households remains low in Senegal (9.4% of agricultural households benefiting from financing during the 2018/19 agricultural campaign) with higher values observed in regions with rice-growing potential.

Looking at funding source, more than half of the financing received by agricultural households was provided by microfinance institutions (28.2%) and friends or relatives living in Senegal (24.7%). The share of financing from government institutions and that of the formal banking sector is relatively low at 2.4% and 10.5% respectively. It also appears that the credits contracted are essentially short-term and intended for the purchase of inputs for production.

The analysis of additional characteristics on the profile of households receiving credit, such as main type of crop production, membership to cooperatives and insurance coverage further help deepen the understanding of the access to credit in the agricultural sector and therefrom to suggest possible courses of action.

For instance, the note concludes with a series of recommendations, including the strengthening of the agricultural insurance sector for easier access of households to credit or promoting participation in market cooperatives for increased capacity to mobilize funds.

Strengthening analytical capacities of DAPSA

Two more thematic policy notes were drafted by DAPSA with the support of FAO with discussions on topics such as access to agricultural land by young people and women, use of inputs, mechanization or agricultural land development by agricultural households.

The thematic notes are accessible and can be downloaded on DAPSA’s website:

• Access to finance by agricultural households (« L’accès au financement par les ménages agricoles. Mise en application avec les données de l’EAA au Sénégal »)
• Access to agricultural land among youth and women in Senegal (« L’accès au foncier agricole par les jeunes et les femmes au Sénégal. Mise en application avec les données de l’EAA au Sénégal»)
• Family-type farms in Senegal ( « Les exploitations agricoles de type familial au Sénégal »)

The production of these policy notes contributed to strengthening the analytical capacity of DAPSA staff. These notes were presented and validated during a national stakeholder workshop in July 2021, which contributed to nourish the national policy debate on specific issues related to the country’s agricultural sector. The workshop also offered the opportunity to the participants (policy analysts and researchers) to get acquainted with the large amount of data generated from the national survey programme (the Enquête Annuelle Agricole - EAA) supported by the FAO and its potentialities for policy design and monitoring purposes.