Solar energy to develop the milk value chain in Senegal
In Senegal, the solar energy and “Progrès-lait” programs which aim to “develop the milk value chain” were presented on Tuesday to local stakeholders in the Saint-Louis region, during a regional development committee (CRD ), reports the APS. This is about allowing milk producers to preserve and transform their product thanks to access to energy, explained the director of Enda-energy, Cheikhou Sarr, initiator of the project in partnership with the Senegalese Agency. of rural electrification (Aser). Senegal, he recalled, spends more than FCFA 60 billion (€91.2 million) per year on the importation of powdered milk, while the country produces 228 million liters of milk annually. Some 194 breeders are registered in the Saint-Louis region and 10 platforms must be installed in Kolda, Louga and Saint-Louis, to boost milk production in these target areas. Progrès-lait is a project launched in 2014 in Senegal and Mauritania by the NGOs Ecodev and ENDA with European funding, with the initial objective of installing around a hundred mini-solar platforms to cool the milk of 2,000 producers and 20 solar dairies capable of pasteurizing this milk and delivering it to processing companies in the region. In December, the first solar milk collection and storage platform equipped with a mini electricity supply network was installed in the village of Diambaouta, in the commune of Koulinto, in the south-east of Senegal.
