Rationale

The importance of rice in the food habits of Africans and in national economies in African countries cannot be overemphasised, especially when demand for this staple is growing at the rate of about 6% per annum—faster than anywhere else in the world. Even in Eastern and Southern Africa, where rice is not a traditional food, annual per capita consumption is also increasing and has reached 15 kg. For sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), rice consumption has grown by 5.3% between 1995 and 2001, while production growth rate during the same period is only about 2%. To meet the high demand for rice, imports increased over the same period by 8.4% per annum so that SSA now accounts for 20% of total world rice imports. Given this trend, SSA countries are spending more than US$ 1.2 billion annually on rice imports.

While it appears that the period 1996-2006 saw many successes in the scientific output of rice research in Africa, such as the NERICA varieties,  there still remain many questions to be addressed. For example, what role should biotechnology play in the generation of new rice varieties for Africa? How should the level of tolerance and resistance to stresses be handled? Noting that many rice farmers still grapple with old production methods and impure seeds, should we use the same technology impact pathways for making new rice technologies available to small-scale farmers in Africa? These and many more questions need to be tackled in focussing rice research and development. Africa Rice Center – the leading rice research institute based in Africa – believes that effective partnership between the scientific core and the non-research partners (including the private sector) brings about the best of synergies and complementarities in the development and delivery of research results.