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Keeping our promises
After the development of the NERICA rice and its
phenomenal success thanks to our researchers’
perseverance, farmers’ acceptance and donors’
conviction, we had made the promise that this “miracle
rice” will be made widely available to farmers in West
Africa and also in the other regions of sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA). We had also promised that our scientists
would not stop with the development of NERICAs for
uplands; they would make similar breakthroughs for
high-impact ecologies.
 Today I am very proud to announce that we have kept both
these promises. One of the biggest agricultural
technology diffusion projects in West Africa—the $35
million African Development Bank (AfDB)-African Rice
Initiative (ARI) Project to support NERICA dissemination
in seven West African countries—took off in May 2005
with the regional launching of the project in Accra,
Ghana. The AfDB grant and loan came into force in
February 2005 on fulfillment of the Bank’s conditions by
all the pilot countries.
The launching of this project is especially rewarding
for WARDA because it testifies to the farsightedness of
the Center in creating ARI to serve as a focused channel
for coordinated NERICA dissemination efforts across SSA.
AfDB’s support to the project demonstrates its strong
commitment to food security and poverty reduction in the
most impoverished region in the world. About 80% of the
targeted beneficiaries of this project are the rural
poor, mostly women.
We thank all the partners, including the governments of
the pilot countries and the ARI Regional and National
Coordination Units for their efforts to make the project
launching possible. We are equally indebted to the
Rockefeller Foundation, which has championed the cause
of ARI right from the beginning, as well as Japan, UNDP
and Sasakawa Global 2000, which have been its staunch
supporters and partners.
Thanks to these NERICA champions as well as the ROCARIZ
and ECARRN rice networks, the African Rice Initiative (ARI),
and our NARS partners, NERICAs are now spreading not
only in West Africa, but also across all the other
regions of SSA.
 Now for the second promise... After the development of
the upland NERICA rice varieties, our next challenge was
to come up with something equally good for the lowland
rice ecology, which offers greater possibility for rice
intensification. Our scientists and their partners in
the national programs have succeeded in this endeavor,
building on the NERICA technology.
These developments show that despite all the shocks and
setbacks, the Center has reached higher levels of
achievement in almost every aspect of its R&D activity,
thanks to the power of partnership with NARS and the
tremendous support of our many donors.
Kanayo F. Nwanze
Director General
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