The Director General of Animal Production and Industries, Mr. Bello Roua, representing The Minister for Livestock and Spokesperson of the Government of the Republic of Niger, proceeded, this morning of September 13, 2021, in Niamey, in the presence of Mr. Sékou Sangaré, ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, to the official launch of two field sub-projects aimed at contributing to the development of the livestock-meat sub-sector in Niger.

These projects are "Realization of an Autonomous Complex for Ecological Production of the Dried Meat of Niger: Kilichi (Eco-Kilichi of Niger)" and "Support to the Facilitation of the Livestock and Meat Trade on the main Export Corridors of Livestock".

Both funded by the ECOWAS Commission with the support of the Swiss Cooperation for a duration of two years each, they aim respectively to (i) improve the meat trade and its export to the countries of the sub-region and (ii) strengthen the capacity of the production and marketing of livestock and meat on the two main export corridors, namely the Niger-Burkina-Côte d'Ivoire and the Niger-Benin corridors.

Through the first project, the ECOWAS Commission encourages the project promoters and all the actors of La Plateforme Innovation Kilichi to effectively work to remove the constraints on the commercialization of Kilichi, which are, among others, the poor nutritional and hygienic quality related to the drying technique used, the low production capacity linked to the artisanal technique and the low incomes of the operators, which limit their ability to invest.

The second project focuses on strengthening the organizational bodies of livestock traders and connecting them to a networks of livestock producers and microfinance institutions. Specifically, the project aims to organize livestock production networks and to strengthen their capacity to increase the quantity and quality of livestock production and marketing on the main two export corridors.

To recall, the two projects will be carried out within the framework of the implementation of the Funding Agreement that the ECOWAS Commission obtained from the Swiss Cooperation to implement the Regional Livestock Marketing Support Project in West Africa (PACBAO).

The Swiss Cooperation funding made it possible for the ECOWAS Commission to launch a call for project proposals which resulted in the selection of 16 field sub-projects, of which the two sub-projects of Niger are part of, in various thematic areas, to be implemented in the ECOWAS Member States and Chad.

The field projects, which reinforce the efforts of the ECOWAS Commission to promoting agricultural and agri-food value chains, address major issues such as (i) intensifying the production of quality meat animals, (ii) modernizing the livestock and meat trade, and (iii) strengthening business linkages among stakeholders along the value chain. They contribute to identify and capture good agricultural and pastoral practices for future scaling-up at the national or regional level.