Agriculture and Urban Food System in Ziguinchor (Senegal): Actors, Circuits, Practices, and Challenges
A source of food for the populations, agriculture represents a key economic activity for precarious urban households and plays a major role in the food system of the city of Ziguinchor. It is characterized by a diversity of actors, organized or not in networks, and its products pass through various marketing circuits, thus contributing to the food security of city dwellers. This food security is now one of the major challenges for the city, linked to population growth. It leads to new relationships between agricultural actors and urban actors in a rapidly expanding city. Through the supply of city dwellers with vegetables, this article looks back on the actors of agriculture, in particular women farmers, the circuits, the practices, and the challenges of the development of agricultural activity in the city of Ziguinchor. These learnings are all keys to understanding urban production basins, links, networks, and distribution circuits of local or non-local food products in the city of Ziguinchor. The analysis is based on a questionnaire and a corpus of interviews conducted with commercial players (wholesalers, retailers, intermediaries), market gardeners and consumers. The results show a mobilization of networks used by various actors and distribution channels of food products. In addition, the diversity of actors, networks, mobilized flows and circuits helps to promote results in terms of food security.