Agriculture in Senegal
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Agriculture in Senegal mainly consists of peanuts, witch is used for the production of oil. Some temperate vegetables and herbs(!) and few tropical vegetables, such as onions, parsly, turnip, potatoes, tamarind, rice, ... As allot of the crops come from temperate regions, one wonders if it's not better to grow different crops, and develop a different (less european) cooking style than too carry on growing unsuitable crops to the region. But, as described below, the countries' economy prevents that from happening (easily).
[edit] Horticulture
Few tropical fruits are available, (again) due to Senegals defunct economy, and consists mainly of oranges, mango, cashewnuts, ... When in season, papayas and guavas are available too.
[edit] Conclusions
It is clear that Senegal's defunct economy has contributed to the lack of spread of tropical crops. Indeed, at this moment, people in Senegal have failed to exploit the countries agricultural and horticultural potential, something witch is all too strange, given that it the countries main employment is food production. It also comes as a surprise that few, if any, cultivars have been created for growing Senegalese crops efficiently, while (again), being an country where most people work in agriculture.
The outlined problems noted above explain how (tropical) agriculture has failed, there are also additional problems such as: cheap imports from (developed) countries, witch causes food products to be cheaper when imported. E.g. rice: thai rice is imported because its cheaper, the rice grown by Senegalese farmers is not sold in the country itself, onions too are imported from the Netherlands, as these products are cheaper, ... However, this does not explain why the Senegalese do not search for solutions to bypass this problem: e.g. switching to another crop to avoid battling cheap product imports, switch to another profession, ...
