The groundnut basin of central Senegal was effectively the epicenter of the 2002 drought, and production fell by about 70 percent. The next major drought was in 2011—after 2 years of bumper harvests during which Senegal finally managed to once again attain production greater than 1 million tonnes.
Did Senegal export groundnuts in the 1960s?
The 1960s were very good years for Senegalese peanuts. At the peak in 1965, Senegal produced 1.1 million tonnes of groundnuts, and exported about 300,000 tonnes of them —which represented roughly 20 percent of total global peanut exports.
Can Senegal regain its footing in the world peanut market?
Senegal is now striving to regain its footing in the world groundnut market, if not in terms of the proportion of the world peanut market it controls (there are more peanuts being traded today than there were in the 1960s and 1970s), then at least in terms of the absolute quantity of groundnuts produced.
How much rain does it take to grow groundnuts in Senegalese?
Further, the groundnut sector both directly and indirectly employs about 1 million Senegalese people (close to 7 percent of the Senegalese population). Groundnuts typically require between 500 and 700 mm of rain to achieve good yields (this is similar to how much water corn needs to grow successfully).