|
The Africa Rice Center: from vision to reality
The Africa Rice Center—the name we adopted in January 2003—is taking concrete shape before our eyes. Over the last few months, the Center has witnessed a continuous stream of requests for partnership from countries and sub-regional organizations (SROs) in Central and East Africa—beyond the traditional rice belt of West Africa.
 A MoU between the Center and the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in Uganda was signed during my trip to the country in October. The NERICA boom in the country is indeed amazing considering that NERICA was introduced there just 3 years ago. Uganda serves as an ideal entry point for the Center’s activities in East Africa.
My trip to Uganda served to lay the groundwork for the subsequent visit by representatives from the World Bank, the Government of Japan, and WARDA to the NERICA project in Masindi, Uganda. The delegation was led by Mr Kazuo Kodama, Deputy Director General, Economic Cooperation Bureau, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was accompanied by Mr Yukio Yoshimura, World Bank Senior Vice-President and Special Representative to Japan.
Another highlight of this period was the 2003 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in October, during which WARDA convened a panel discussion on the African Rice Initiative. The panel members representing a wide array of stakeholders endorsed a coordinated NERICA dissemination effort across Africa.
The resilience of WARDA staff in the face of the continuing Ivoirian crisis was widely applauded at the AGM. This spirit of resilience was clearly visible during the preparation of our new Strategic Plan 2003-2012, which has just been published. We are very grateful to the present and past WARDA Board members and staff as well as to our partners who helped shape the Plan.
Kanayo F. Nwanze
Director General
|
