Innovative R&D products, tools and approaches developed by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) and its partners to boost productivity in Africa’s rice farming will be showcased at the first ‘Rice Innovations Fair of ScalableTechnologies’, 1-2 September 2014, in Cotonou, Benin.

 

The technologies on display will include, among others,new climate-smart ARICA rice varieties;  SMART-valleys, a low-cost participatory and sustainable approach to develop inland valleys in sub-Saharan Africa for rice-based systems; mechanical weeders;  power tillers;  an energy-efficient rice parboiler;  and RiceAdvice, a decision support app for providing farmers with field-specific management guidelines.

 

The main objectives of the ‘Rice Innovations Fair’ are to raise awareness about the latest innovations as well as to identify with development partners, donors and researchers promising scalable technologies and define dissemination pathways.

 

The first day of the event will focus on the presentation of eleven technologies, followed by discussions to define dissemination pathways for each innovation.

 

The second day will be a visit to the Ouinhi district in Benin, to see inland valleys that have been developed using the Smart-valleys participatory approach. These achievements are the result of our partnership with the Benin extension agency called Cellule Bas-Fonds, part of the Genie Rural.

 

The 2-days event is expected to be highly interactive in order to maximize knowledge exchange among participants and establish new contacts between researchers and representatives of the development sector.