Cotonou, Benin
February 27, 2009
The global food crisis which sent
rice prices above $1000 per tonne last year is an opportunity
for African countries to better their economies, the Deputy
Director-General of
Africa Rice Center (WARDA), Dr. Marco Wopereis has said.
“The price crisis has actually made rice farming profitable for
farmers,” he said at a media conference after the opening of the
annual planning meeting on Stress-Tolerant Rice for poor farmers
in Africa and South Asia (STRASA), in Ibadan .
Last year, global food price hikes sparked riots in different
parts of the world as food stuff touched record highs.
Worst affected were developing nations that depend on food
imports to meet their demands.
Wopereis said though prices subsided, the threats have not gone
away.
Currently, rice prices are trading at about $400 per tonne, but
high prices are expected to remain for the next decade or two,
according to forecasts.
Despite Africa ’s favorable climate conditions, records in 2006
from WARDA show that sub Saharan Africa for instance imports
around 40 percent of rice, costing about $2 billion.
Most of these imports come from Asia which is being affected by
the negative effects of climatic change that has resulted in
dwindling water reserves.
“It therefore means that supply from Asia in the future may not
be guaranteed,” Wopereis said as he called on African nations to
take action in order to become self-sufficient in rice
production.
According to him, there was a need for African governments to
invest more in research, adding that WARDA and its partners will
continue to offer solutions that will improve yields on farmers’
fields.
He described STRASA as a strategic partnership in rice research
aimed at addressing the constraints faced by rice farmers in
Africa by tapping technologies from Asian countries.
Funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to
the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the STRASA
project involves international researchers from IRRI and the
Africa Rice Center as well as partners from national
agricultural research institutes, government extension and civil
society groups in 15 countries.
The project focuses on the major rainfed ecosystems in
sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia .It aims to accelerate the
development and delivery of improved rice varieties that are
tolerant of five major stresses – drought, submergence,
salinity, iron toxicity and low temperature.
An important thrust of the project is to enhance the capacity in
national research and technology transfer systems for sustained
rice improvement efforts.
Africa Rice Center is IRRI’s main partner in implementing the
African component of this project. The project member countries
in Africa comprise Benin , Burkina Faso , The Gambia, Ghana ,
Guinea , Mali , Nigeria and Senegal in West Africa as well as
Ethiopia , Madagascar , Mozambique , Rwanda , Liberia , Tanzania
and Uganda in eastern and southern Africa .
Dr. Baboucarr Manneh, Coordinator of the African component of
STRASA, highlighted the achievements of the project as follows:
- Production of seeds of
improved and stress-tolerant varieties that will be
evaluated in the project countries through farmer
participatory varietal selection;
- Training of national
scientists, technicians and farmers in modern breeding
approaches, improved seed production and impact assessment;
- Implementation of improved
and standardized screening facilities at the research
stations of Africa Rice Center for the different stresses;
and
- Establishment of a network
of national scientists and partners in the project
countries.
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