RICE CULTIVATION CALENDAR IN THE SENEGAL RIVER VALLEY

The objective of this study is to determine the causes of the delay in the rice cropping calendar in the Delta and the Middle Valley of the Senegal River. To achieve this, a survey of a sample of 197 producers spread over fifteen villages and focus groups in six villages were carried out. The analysis of these data allowed a characterization of the people surveyed and a better knowledge of the social structure of the study area. In addition, through a principal component analysis (PCA), the dimension of the database was reduced to synthesize the variables of interest and perform an econometric analysis. The latter consisted of a binary logit regression which made it possible to identify the main causes of the delay in the cropping calendar.Thus, the results of the analysis show that the availability of inputs (credit, seeds, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides), constitute, according to the producers, the main cause of the delay in the cropping calendar.