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Charting the future of
rice in sub-Saharan Africa
 Rice is the fastest growing food source in Africa and is
inextricably linked with the future of the continent.
Rice consumption is rapidly replacing traditional coarse
grains, mainly sorghum and millet. Surveys in Burkina
Faso, for example, have found that the poorest one-third
of urban households obtain 35% of their cereal-based
calories from rice. Rice purchases represent 45% of
their cash expenditures on cereals.
The situation is similar in several other African states
demonstrating that rice availability and rice prices
have become a major determinant of the welfare of the
poorest segments of consumers who are least food secure.
In the immediate future, therefore, food security in
Africa will largely depend on achieving a sustainable
increase in local rice production.
Appropriate research strategy to address this
challenge
The Africa Rice Center strongly believes that
agricultural development in SSA requires a radical shift
from traditional thinking and approaches, and should be
based on an in-depth understanding of local
environmental and socio-economic conditions. Its aim is
to generate technologies that are adapted to the African
environment without modifying that environment to fit
the technology. The NERICA breakthrough proves that the
Center’s approach is correct.
NERICA is spreading fast in East Africa, where rice is
considered more a commercial product rather than a food
crop, in contrast to West and Central Africa. The
private sector is, therefore, actively involved in the
NERICA trade (food grain and seed sectors).
NERICA varieties for African lowlands have been recently
developed in association with the Center’s national
partners. Given the high potential of lowlands in
Africa, the new rice—if it becomes popular with the
farmers as it seems likely to do so, judging from their
first reaction to it—is expected to make an even bigger
impact than the upland NERICA.
For irrigated rice ecology, improved varieties have been
developed, such as Sahel 108, 201, 202, which cover 80%
of the Senegal River Valley. Sahel 108 occupies over 70%
of the area under rice in Mauritania, where rice yield
has gone up from 2 t per ha in early 1980s to more than
4 t in 2000.
“The future rice research strategy will build on these
successes, focusing on the three major rice ecologies,”
stated Dr Shellemiah Keya, Assistant Director General,
Research & Development. Traditional plant breeding and
biotechnological methods, complemented by the use of
informatics and genomics, in partnership with
international Centers and advanced research institutes,
such as IRRI and JIRCAS, will be used to develop
high-yielding, good quality, multiple-stress-resistant
rice varieties appropriate for all the rice-growing
ecologies.
Complementary technologies, such as integrated crop
management, participatory approaches, decision support
tools and post-harvest technologies such as the ASI rice
thresher, which is increasingly popular in several
rice-producing African countries, will be pursued for
efficiency and for delivering a basket of technology
package to resource- poor farmers.
Activities will seek to improve resource-use efficiency
for more productive, profitable, and socio-economically
viable rice production systems in SSA as well as to
develop stress-tolerant rice varieties and agronomic
practices that best fit or better optimize existing
production systems in SSA and are acceptable to both
producers and consumers
Whereas farm-level technology development remain the
bottom line for increasing the competitiveness of
rice-based systems, these efforts will not be effective
if they are not combined with a stronger integration of
rice-based systems into the rice market. “For example,
the input market, particularly seed and fertilizers
markets in most West African countries are not
developed. Good seed and fertilizer are major inputs
required for intensive rice production,” Dr Keya said.
Strengthening market linkages require the implementation
of a comprehensive approach from the farmers’ fields to
processing and retailing stages that will respond to
consumers’ requirement in terms of quality. Dr Keya
emphasized that the Africa Rice Center and its partners
will give high priority to build strategies for a
competitive rice sector development in SSA through a
better understanding of rice policy and market dynamics
and a systematic assessment of impacts of technical and
institutional changes within the rice sector
Africa-wide spillovers of rice-based innovations are
being actively catalyzed through networks, such as the
ROCARIZ rice network in West Africa, the ECARRN rice
network in Eastern and Central Africa, the African Rice
Initiative, Inland Valley Consortium and INGER-Africa.
These networks serve as a two-way conduit between
international and national research systems and have
created remarkable R&D synergies. The future research
strategy will enhance the institutional capacity of
national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES)
by extending the Center’s highly successful network
model to other rice-producing areas of Africa
Efforts will also be made to reach out beyond the
traditional research partners to ensure that rice
knowledge and technology are relevant and accessible to
a broader range of actors interested in rice development
in Africa: ranging from international development banks
and bilateral agencies, through government and research
institutions to local NGOs and the private sector.
 Studies will be conducted to explore how rice
agriculture can provide a nutritional bulkhead against
which to fight the impact of pandemics such as malaria
and HIV/AIDS; vital nutrient deficiencies can be tackled
through bio-fortification. Research will focus on
increasing rice productivity while conserving the
environment and biodiversity. Besides the sustainable
use of natural resources, the opportunities of
crop-livestock and rice-fish culture will be further
explored.
“Only through such a holistic approach, embracing basic
science, breeding techniques old and new, integrated
agronomy technologies and policy reform, can research be
certain of creating the maximum impact on the
resource-poor producers and the burgeoning urban
populations of the African continent,” Dr Keya
concluded.
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