Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
August 9, 2006
by Mun-Keat Looi,
SciDev.Net
Africa's
'green revolution' will hinge on homegrown rice, said
researchers and policy analysts at the first African Rice
Congress in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last week.
Delegates
agreed resolutions calling for more research aimed at developing
improved varieties and boosting rice production in Africa.
They urged
governments to support their rice farmers, instead of becoming
increasingly dependent on foreign supplies.
Sub-Saharan
Africa imports almost half of its rice, and demand is increasing
by six per cent each year.
The
conference emphasised the need to increase the number of rice
scientists in sub-Saharan Africa through incentives and
training.
A
spokesperson for the
Africa Rice Center
(WARDA), which organised the
meeting, says the centre will strengthen its training of rice
scientists and technicians in collaboration with Cornell
University in the United States.
Delegates
also said that plant breeding and biotechnology programmes such
as those run by the Rockefeller Foundation in East Africa should
be extended to West and Central Africa.
To increase
production, they emphasised the importance of developing
low-cost agricultural machinery, such as rice threshers, that
are appropriate to farming conditions in Africa.
Delegates
said that the success of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA)
varieties — bred from high-yielding Asian rice and African rice
that thrives in harsh conditions — showed the benefit of
conserving Africa's rice diversity in gene banks.
Nguu Van
Nguyen, secretary of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's
International Rice Commission, welcomes the resolutions but says
much effort will be needed to make Africa self-sufficient in
rice production.
He emphasised
the importance of developing irrigation systems to support rice
farming.
The Food and
Agriculture Organization is also working with the Rockefeller
Foundation-funded African Rice Initiative to scale up
dissemination of NERICA seeds throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
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