In 1996, when the Senegalese National Agricultural
Research Institute (ISRA) was desperately looking for seed production
specialists who could produce high quality foundation seed of all the rice
varieties released in the country, it turned to Madame Peinda Cissé, a rice
seed producer, who rose to the challenge.
Madame Cissé is the Founder-President of a farming
women’s association called FEPRODES, which brings together thousands of women
involved in rice seed development to get better access to credit, technologies
and trade opportunities.
The seed produced by FEPRODES has been distributed
in Mauritania and Guinea Bissau to reactivate rice production in those countries
after civil conflicts. The association has multiplied seed of all the popular
‘Sahel’ rice series, including aromatic varieties, developed by AfricaRice and
its partners. The Sahel varieties cover more than 85% of the Senegal River
Valley.
FEPRODES has its own training center for seed
production and micro-credit system and has helped to increase the incomes and
improve the quality of life of its members, lifting them from the
position of being the most deprived and poverty-stricken in rural society.
It has trained women processors in Senegal in
improved rice parboiling techniques with the help of AfricaRice. Members have also
received training in gender-mainstreaming, which they are passing on to others
using a value-chain approach.
Recognizing Madame Cissé as a leading and inspiring
figure for women seed producers in West Africa, the Third Africa Rice Congress
held in October 2013 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, presented her with the Outstanding
Rice Entrepreneur Award for Seed Production.
She is also a co-recipient of the 2003 Presidential Prize
for Science and Technology in Senegal for the development of the ASI
thresher-cleaner, which is now widely used in several African countries.
On the occasion of the 2014 International Women’s
Day, whose theme is “Equality for women is progress for all,” AfricaRice salutes
Madame Cissé and all the pioneering women rice producers like her, who are
helping to take Africa forward.
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