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ARI and AfDB join forces for NERICA dissemination
In September 2003, one of the most important events for African development took place quietly – amid little attention from the international media. The African Development Bank (AfDB) signed a $30 million grant and loan to support the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) dissemination in seven West African countries for 5 years.
 The support is testimony to AfDB’s strong commitment to food security and poverty reduction in the most impoverished region in the world. About 80% of the targeted beneficiaries of the project are the rural poor, mostly women.
The project estimates that about 33,000 farm families will be involved in participatory variety selection (PVS) strategy to accelerate the NERICA dissemination. About 400 000 ha of additional land is expected to be under the NERICA cultivation by the 5th year of the project. The import bill of the seven countries is expected to reduce by about US$100 million.
The AfDB support, formalized through an agreement with seven West African countries was the culmination of months of behind-the-scene preparatory work by the African Rice Initiative (ARI) and WARDA, which hosts the Initiative. The raison d’être of ARI is to serve primarily as a single focused channel for all efforts to disseminate NERICA, other improved rice varieties and related technologies throughout Africa.
“For ARI, the AfDB agreement comes as a major boost, since it sets the stage for large-scale coordinated dissemination of the NERICA in West Africa,” said Dr Inoussa Akintayo, ARI Coordinator. “The project will be implemented through the ARI National Coordination Units and Stakeholder Platforms that have been established in almost all the selected countries.”
For an initiative that is just 2-years old, an achievement such as this is indeed noteworthy. ARI was conceived to replicate throughout SSA the success of the World Bank-funded NERICA dissemination project in Guinea, where thanks to the NERICA, within 5 years farmers were able to gross US$65 per hectare with minimal inputs and US$145 with moderate level of inputs.
ARI was launched by WARDA in March 2002, under the sponsorship of the Government of Japan, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/ Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC), Rockefeller Foundation, AfDB, and World Bank. Right from the beginning, its Coordination Unit has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Donors, like AfDB and Rockefeller Foundation, are embracing ARI’s cause because they are convinced of the immense potential of the NERICA for food security and poverty alleviation in SSA and the value of the ARI as the most effective platform for the coordinated NERICA dissemination across the region.
“To maximize the impact of the NERICA in SSA, it is vital to coordinate its dissemination, because of the high demand for pure seeds and the risk of dissemination in inappropriate environments,” explained Dr Kanayo F. Nwanze, WARDA Director General. A coordinated effort is also necessary to overcome institutional constraints, such as the limited capacity and resources of national extension institutions and the seed sector.
This important theme was the focus of a series of high-level meetings in Tokyo, in July and September 2003. The meetings were jointly organized by the World Bank, Japan and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Representatives of NERICA champions, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and AfDB were invited to participate.
“The blueprint for an orchestrated dissemination has been clearly laid out in the ARI Project Document, ratified by the NERICA Consortium, the implementing body of ARI,” affirmed Dr Akintayo.
The Government of Japan, one of the foremost NERICA champions, is planning to send two experts – an agronomist and a seed specialist – to support ARI’s activities.
Since seed shortage is the biggest bottleneck in the NERICA dissemination process, ARI is planning to mount a major effort on seed production. It will focus on the production of seeds of the NERICA varieties that have already been adopted by farmers to meet the increasing demand as well as those of new NERICA lines for participatory varietal selection (PVS) to accelerate their adoption.
ARI will also address the problem of the lack of rice processing technology in the region.
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