The tone is set for the launch of Mali’s general agricultural census operation, coupled with the registration of farmers and agricultural enterprises, on Monday May 13 at Samanko in the commune of Mandé. The aim of this operation is to gather comprehensive, up-to-date data for better planning of the agricultural sector. This census operation is scheduled to last 4 months and will cover the 19 regions and the district of Bamako. All family farms and agricultural enterprises in the country will be involved.
Mali would like to have a reliable directory with up-to-date data on farms to better understand and determine their needs. After a twenty-year hiatus, the general agricultural census has been relaunched. This 4-month operation will mobilize just over 6,000 agents. It will cover the Bamako district, plus the country’s 19 administrative regions, and will involve all the country’s family farms and agricultural enterprises, including farm equipment, pastoral watering points, horticultural sites, fishing camps, agricultural plots and livestock. These companies will be registered and geolocated.
For the Minister of Territorial Administration, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, the launch of this census operation is aimed at making food self-sufficiency a reality in Mali and turning the country into an agricultural powerhouse. For him, it is the fulfillment of a presidential promise, “to return land to the farmers of Mandé”. Abdoulaye Maiga believes that ”
this census will be a reliable statistical reference that will enable Mali to plan its development properly
”.
Satisfaction from the farming community
Sanoussi Bouya Sylla, President of the Permanent Assembly of Mali’s Chambers of Agriculture (APCAM), welcomed the initiative, which he said would restore farmland to the Mandé farmers. He took the opportunity to pass on the farmers’ message, ”. we ask the Minister of State to ensure that the signing of the inter-ministerial decree for the operation of village land commissions becomes a reality in Mali. Secondly, some market gardeners were evicted from Bamako to set up here, but the system has never worked properly because the system that brings water to the market garden area is not functional. We ask that drilling be carried out on the site”.
Given the importance of this operation, the government spokesman is calling on all rural stakeholders, decentralized government technical services, and traditional and religious authorities to support the project en masse. He also urged field operatives to show “professionalism and seriousness in their work to make this operation a success”.
Adama Tembely/©️ Malikonews.com
