The Office du Niger (ON), a semi-autonomous government agency in Mali that administers a large irrigation scheme in the Ségou Region of the country and the largest agricultural pool in Mali, has revealed an ambitious strategic global development vision, fully aligned with the national program Mali Kura ɲɛtaasira ka bɛn san 2063 ma initiated by the transitional authorities.
Under the leadership of its President and CEO, Badara Aliou Traore, the Office has made plans to transform this strategic area into a real agro-social development centre to ensure the food sovereignty of Mali and the sub-region.
Faced with an increasing national population, which has seen exponential explosive growth from 2.7 million inhabitants in 1960 to 23 million in 2023, it has become urgent to design and implement an integrated development program that would ensure agriculturalexpansion to meet the needs of the people.
This strategy is based on a proactive state commitment, called to play a leadership role, and on a strong involvement of all actors, which would include the transition administration, local authorities, farmers, private actors, service providers, and technical and financial partners.
This strategic vision revolves around five major axes, aimed at lifting the constraints that prevent the Niger Office from fully playing its role as a machinery to achieve food sovereignty for the country.
These include Improvement of the institutional, regulatory and partnership framework and the governance of the ON zone. There will be a redefinition of the institutional framework, security of the zone, intensification of communication, strengthening of human resources and sanitation of land management.
There will be Intensification and integration of plant, animal, aquaculture and silvicultural productions. It will be focused on the intensification of rice cultivation and the development of diversification cultures as well as animal and aquaculture productions.
Improvement of water management infrastructure, which would include rehabilitation of the Markala dam and its hydraulic network, reconstruction of destroyed works, mobilisation of maintenance funds, and improvement of network efficiency.
Development of water management arrangements would also entail servicing of the hydraulic network and financing of development and rehabilitation studies.
Agricultural productions will be enhanced with the development of a large agro-industrial development program, construction of processing plants, packaging, storage and shipping centres.
This ambitious program is in support of project n ° 1 Farafina Jiginè: feeding Mali and the sub-region, identified as a priority structuring project for vision 2063 and its ten-year implementation strategy (Snedd 2024-2033), which recognises the ON as the de facto agropolis of the Ségou region for the key streams sugar, shallot/onion, cattle, meat and fish farming.
By 2063, these measures aim to deliver ambitious results, including the development of 1 million new hectares for agriculture, the construction of 500 km of irrigation networks and 700 km of drainage networks, and the coating of 1,600 km of distributors and scores along with 3,800 km of sprinklers to upgrade the existing hydraulic network.
Rice yields are projected to rise by 50%, climbing from 6 tons per hectare to 9 tons per hectare, pushing Mali toward becoming a net rice exporter. Annual paddy rice production is expected to surge from 3.6 million tonnes to 5.4 million tonnes.
Additionally, 60,000 hectares will be enhanced for market gardening and diversified crops, with an expected output exceeding 2.3 million tonnes. The initiative will also drive growth in processing, storage, and transport infrastructure while creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs across value chains.
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