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Policies and Strategies for 
Promoting Rice Production and 
Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional Workshop

Africa Rice Center (WARDA)
Cotonou, Benin

7-9 November 2005

THEMES

The workshop will comprise presentations of commissioned, invited and accepted peer-reviewed papers. Presentations and discussions will fall into one or more of the following workshop priority themes.

Achieving competitiveness for domestic rice production

  • How can farmers, countries or production systems within countries and regions achieve competitive advantage?

  • Which exogenous and endogenous factors are affecting rice producers’ competitiveness?

  • What types of policies and strategies need to be put in place to assure competitive rice production?

  • What is the impact of new rice technologies on livelihoods, welfare and food security?

Policy variables for achieving competitiveness

  • What are the macroeconomic variables or factors needed to gain competitive advantage?

  • Which types of import and export policies need to be put in place?

  • What are the appropriate institutions and infrastructure etc required?

  • At the micro-economic level, which policies keep costs down and give remunerative prices to producers?

Common agricultural policy and market integration

  • How are the regional economic, common market and policy organizations (ECOWAS and UEMOA in West Africa and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Southern Africa] functioning to enhance food security and domestic rice production on a competitive basis?

  • What lessons can we draw from these regional organizations for promoting food security and, in particular, competitive rice production and markets within the sub-regions?

Innovation in policy formulation

  • In West Africa, the UEMOA group is well ahead of ECOWAS in having common monetary and trade policies and tariffs on rice. Are there beneficial innovations and lessons here for the rest of SSA?

  • What lessons from these comparative analyses from the economic groupings can be used to promote rice sector development and food security?

  • How can policy research contribute to improving rice competitiveness and what are the priority research areas?