Heifer Senegal Boosts Food Self-Sufficiency for Tabaski Holiday

Anta Gueye Engl works tirelessly to support her fourteen children and grandchildren, all of whom live with her on a modest compound on the outskirts of Thiès, Senegal’s third largest city. She raises chickens, goats, horses and sheep, while juggling farming, tailoring and carrying out her role as the matriarch of her sprawling family. Life is busy and often difficult. For as long as she can remember, Anta has faced the harsh realities of food insecurity and poverty. 

Anta isn’t alone. The most recent figures from the National Agency of Statistics and Demography of Senegal report that more than 60 percent of people in some regions of the country live in poverty.  The country also faces high levels of food insecurity, which grow worse each year during the “lean season.” This distressing time of year, marked by dwindling harvests and surging food prices, typically takes place from May to August, though in some areas, it stretches from February to November.  

“When the lean season comes, it’s always a struggle to keep food on the table.” — Anta Gueye Engl

In 2023 alone, 1.3 million people in Senegal experienced acute hunger, exacerbated by climate-driven floods and drought.  The following year, more than half a million people continued to face severe hunger. Climate change has only exacerbated the situation as the lean season grows longer and harsher, with erratic rainfall that brings both floods that wash away crops and droughts that thwart food production.

Beyond the seasonal strains, culture and tradition, particularly significant ceremonies, influence Senegal’s food crisis. This is particularly true during the religious celebration la fête de Tabaski, the West African equivalent of Eid al-Adha, when friends, families and neighbors traditionally gather for a feast including sheep meat. Tabaski coincides with the lean season from 2018 through 2028, and the high demand for sheep during this time creates a surge in prices, often forcing families into debt or going without a holiday that carries a great significance to their communities.

Anta often mentions Tabaski and other celebrations when she discusses the food challenges facing her family and community. She’s been raising livestock since 1989, but it’s never been easy. Over the years, she’s contended with shortages of animal fodder and feed as well as livestock theft. Without access to proper training in animal care, she’s also struggled to raise healthy livestock. “It’s been hard and frustrating,” she admitted.

In 2017, Heifer Senegal partnered with the Association of Mayors of Senegal and the Ministry of Livestock and Animal Production on a pilot project to support smallholders like Anta in raising healthy sheep.

The goal was to improve sheep production as a pathway to reducing poverty and food insecurity and, between 2017 and 2019, the initiative supported more than 27,500 households. During this time, smallholders increased their overall income, gained access to savings and credit programs and increased sheep production by 150 percent.

Based on the success of and learnings from the pilot, the program was renewed with the intention of scaling: The second phase, which began in 2022 and will run through 2027, aims to reach an additional 121,410 households.

Coined as the Mayors’ Initiative for Sheep Self-Sufficiency — Phase 2, a new partnership with the Association of Mayors of Senegal and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, the program focuses on training smallholders in improved livestock health, strengthening farmer organizations, including community-based self-help groups, and connecting smallholders to suppliers, buyers and profitable markets. It is also designed to strengthen community food sovereignty and resilience by reducing Senegal’s reliance on imports, particularly the influx of sheep ahead of Tabaski, the peak of the animals’ demand.

"The government is very engaged in having sufficient sheep during this period," said Heifer Senegal Country Director Daouda Ndao. "Each year around 300,000 sheep come [in] to cover the gap we have here in the country." 

As part of the initiative, Heifer Senegal has distributed more than 10,500 ewes and 737 rams for breeding and will distribute a total of 60,705 ewes to more than 30,350 households by the program’s end. Heifer has also trained 267 community animal health workers to provide low-cost animal health services to participating smallholders, and provided farmers with over 5,370 hours of collective education in improved livestock management, business, financial literacy and other topics — education that Anta asserted has been invaluable.

“The training has made me more caring of the animals and more responsible,” she reflected.

Anta also notes a key improvement in accessing veterinary care, which has become more consistently available, thanks to the Mayors’ Initiative for Sheep Self-Sufficiency. “In the past, we only called the veterinarian when we noticed the animals were not feeling well. Nowadays, the veterinarian comes at regular times to check the animals and do the vaccinations.”

She continued to explain how the impact of the interventions have extended beyond her own farm and helped other smallholder sheep producers in her community. “Production is going up,” she said.

Overall, results of the second phase of the program are promising: As of January 2025, it has supported more than 30,200 participants, 85 percent of whom are women, with households reporting an additional annual income of approximately $669 per household per year — a meaningful gain in a country where, as of 2021, smallholders typically earn around $1,040 per year.

Countrywide, the increases in production and income for Anta and thousands of others mark a notable stride toward economic resilience and food self-sufficiency, especially during key cultural and family events that traditionally place added strain on community stability.

“When Tabaski and other religious ceremonies come, and also the different family ceremonies, like the celebration of the birth of a child, now we don’t have to buy a sheep because we raise them ourselves,” Anta noted. “If we need cash to meet some other needs for the family, we have livestock to sell. We have sheep ready at hand.”

“Now people come to us to buy sheep,” she added. “This has been very important to us.”