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August 2009

• JICA and ARI enhance rice seed production capacity of national African technicians and extension agents

Jointly organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the African Rice Initiative (ARI) of the Africa Rice Center, the Seed training workshop was held at the Songhai Center in Porto Novo, Benin, 3-7 August.

More than 20 technicians, including four women, from five countries (The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) participated in this training course, which had the following objectives:

•     Enhance the capacity of rice technicians from the national agricultural research and extension systems of sub-Saharan Africa to produce good quality seeds

•     Enhance their capacity in varietal maintenance

•     Offer opportunities to them to exchange their experiences and information.

The course consisted of presentations, group discussions and field exercises. It covered the following areas:

•         Principles of seed multiplication

•         Key steps to quality seed production

•         Rice morphology characters and growth stages

•         Post-harvest operations

•         Participatory varietal selection (PVS) and Community-based seed system (CBSS)

•         Common insect pests and diseases of rice

The participants raised major issues relating to rice production in their countries, such as the shortage and the high cost of production inputs; poor funding of research and development; lack of infrastructures, equipments and qualify human resources; weeds, birds and rodents.

At the end of the workshop, participants prepared and presented Action Plans for their respective countries. These plans were discussed and suggestions for improvement made.

June 2009

• Japan-funded Emergency project addresses Africa’s critical needs in rice seed and data

As part of its overall support to the Africa Rice Center’s Emergency Rice Initiative in response to the world food crisis, Japan is providing significant support to carry out activities in two major areas:  

• Enhanced access to quality seed of improved rice varieties in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 20 out of 21 Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) candidate countries;
   

• Collection of reliable rice data in all 21 CARD countries to support the development and implementation of national rice development strategies.

The 21 CARD countries comprise Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Liberia, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo in West Africa and Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia in East Africa.

The project works in close collaboration with national research and extension systems and the private sector in the target countries.

For the seed component of this project, the West Africa regional launching meeting, followed by a training workshop, was organized in Cotonou, Benin, 27 April-1 May. The East Africa launching meeting and training workshop took place in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, 4-8 May.

For the rice statistics component of this project, the West Africa regional launching meeting, followed by a training workshop, was organized in Cotonou, Benin, 11-15 May and the East Africa launching and training took place in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, 1-5 June.

The project is using the Emergency Rice Initiative Spreadsheet (ERIS) that has been developed by the Africa Rice Center to assist African countries in developing strategies to boost domestic rice production.

• BADEA and Africa Rice Center boost Africa’s rice research and development capacity

As part of a new partnership between the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and the Africa Rice Center, a capacity building program to make the rice sector in the region competitive by improving the capacity of operators at the research and extension levels was launched.

The program is complementing the Center’s efforts to raise rice productivity in sub-Saharan Africa through the African Rice Initiative and the Emergency Rice Initiative launched in 2008 in response to the food crisis.

With support from BADEA, scientists from the Africa Rice Center and its partners imparted knowledge on Integrated Rice Management through hands-on training to more than 50 participants including about 30 women from 16 countries across SSA.

The participating countries comprise Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.

The Africa Rice Center has found that knowledge of Integrated Rice Management is crucial to bridge yield gaps in farmers’ fields through better crop management. By applying this knowledge combined with a participatory learning and action research (PLAR) approach developed by the Center, rice yields in farmers’ fields can be increased by 0.5 to 2.0 tonnes per hectare without enhanced production costs.

During the training program, which was conducted in French and English in May and June 2009, manuals on the Integrated Rice Management based on the PLAR approach as well as farmer learning videos developed by the Center were extensively used by the facilitators.

Dr Seck along with BADEA delegates participated in the official ceremony of the handing over of certificates to the participants. Thanking the Center for the successful capacity building program, the delegates mentioned that about 4000 African nationals have benefited from various training programs supported by BADEA.

• CFC-funded Inland Valley project workshop reviews achievements

An end-of-project meeting was held at Africa Rice Center, 3-4 June, on the CFC-funded project on “Sustainable productivity improvement for rice in inland valleys in West Africa (SPIRIVWA).”

SPIRIVWA is carried out in three in three different agro-ecologies in West Africa (savanna – Burkina Faso; intermediate zone – Côte d’Ivoire; humid forest zone – Nigeria) with the respective national partners INERA, NCRI and CNRA.

The project aims at improving inland-valley rice productivity through the development of water management structures, participatory farmer training and farmer participatory experiments with improved weed management practices.

The objectives of the workshop, which marked the final stage of the project, were to get an overview of project achievements and to discuss technical and financial reporting. It was attended by nine project participants.
 

May 2009

• 7th African Rice Initiative Steering Committee meeting organized

The 2009 Steering Committee/Experts meeting of the African Rice Initiative (ARI) of the Africa Rice Center was held in Cotonou, Benin, 4-6 May.

More than 35 participants attended, including four representatives from the African Development Bank (AfDB) as well as representatives from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the AfDB-funded NERICA® project countries, the three Common Fund for Commodities (CFC)-funded rice project countries, four observer countries (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon and Senegal), and Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG 2000).

The Director General of the national program from Gabon, Dr Obame Ondo, was specially invited to attend as observer. Gabon is keen to joint the Africa Rice Center.

The Steering Committee reviewed the progress made in AfDB-funded project countries (Benin, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) and in the CFC-funded project countries (Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic).

The areas covered included the availability of good quality seeds of upland NERICA® varieties, introduction of lowland NERICA® rice and other improved varieties, seed system development, capacity building, development of integrated rice management options, varietal maintenance, participatory varietal selection (PVS), post-harvest processing and commercialization.

The Steering Committee meeting this year was particularly noteworthy because of the participation of Mr Bakary Togola from Mali, President of the farmers’ association APCAM, who has achieved remarkable success in rice farming.

April 2009

• Realizing the agricultural potential of inland valleys in sub-Saharan Africa

The European Commission-funded project “Realizing the agricultural potential of inland valley lowlands in sub-Saharan Africa while maintaining their environmental services (RAPS)” was launched in Benin (25-27 March) and in Mali (30 March – 1 April).

The project seeks to improve the livelihood of the rural poor by enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of inland valleys through sustainable intensification and diversification of agricultural productivity and product value chain development, while conserving land and water resources.

It is jointly carried out by the Africa Rice Center, Wageningen UR, ICRA, CIRAD and the national research and extension systems of Benin and Mali.

The use of the Participatory Learning and Action Research (PLAR) co-learning and co-innovation approaches and multi-stakeholder platforms will ensure the ownership of research results and rapid diffusion of knowledge beyond the key sites in each target country.

• UNDP and Africa Rice Center team up to rebuild rice capacity in post-conflict Liberia

With support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Africa Rice Center through its African Rice Initiative (ARI) is rebuilding the capacity of smallholder rice farmers in post-conflict Liberia within the framework of the Millennium Village Project located in Kokoyah Village (KMV).

Through this collaborative project, ARI seeks to provide technical assistance and guidance across the rice value chain from seed production to harvest and post-harvest processing in close partnership with the national agricultural research and extension systems.

As part of this, a training program was carried out by ARI, 6-10 April, on quality seed production of NERICA® and other improved varieties and modern farming practices. More than 20 agricultural technicians attended the course.

• Regional harmonization of USAID-funded emergency rice project

Two regional coordination committee meetings were held as part of the USAID-funded Emergency project to boost rice production in Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal to harmonize project management, evaluation and reporting mechanisms.

The first one was organized in Cotonou, Benin (8-10 April) for Ghana and Nigeria and the second one in Saint Louis, Senegal (14-15 April) for Mali and Senegal.

The USAID-funded Emergency rice project seeks to increase rice production in the target countries as part of an overall effort to mitigate the effects of the food crisis on poor rice farmers and consumers.

The project is being carried out by the Africa Rice Center in partnership with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), and the national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) in each of the target countries.

• Helping African agriculture adapt to climate change

As part of a multi-partnership project led by the University of Hohenheim on “Developing rice and sorghum crop adaptation strategies for climate change in vulnerable environments in Africa (RISOCAS),” a workshop was organized in Cotonou, Benin, 16-17 April, to evaluate the results from the first year.

The main objective of this project is to deliver coping strategies for crop adaptation to changing climatic conditions, along with tools and methodologies enabling stakeholders to develop such strategies further, or to apply them to other crops or environments.

The project focuses on rainfed rice and sorghum and irrigated rice, which are three of the most important staple small-grain cereals in sub-Saharan Africa. For each of the three target crops and ecosystems, sets of valuable physiological and morphological traits for breeding will be delivered to breeders, along with suitable selection tools.

The project is jointly carried out by the University of Hohenheim and Africa Rice Center in partnership with the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD); Université Gaston Berger, Senegal, Centre national de la recherche appliquée au développement rural (FOFIFA), Madagascar and the Institut d’économie rurale (IER), Mali.

Attached to the workshop, a training course about modeling was held, 20-24 April, to train RISOCAS project members and invited guests on existing models which will be used during later project phases.

In total, 17 participants attended the project workshop and 22 attended the training course, with a considerable number attending both workshops. 

• Strengthening national partners’ capacity in impact assessment

Strengthening the capacity of national partners in impact assessment is an important component of the Policy and Impact Assessment Program activities at the Africa Rice Center.

A training course on impact assessment was jointly organized by the Africa Rice Center, Institut sénégalais de recherches agricoles (ISRA) and the University Gaston Berger (UGB) in St Louis, Senegal, 20-24 April.

The main objective of this training course was to introduce to participants new methods and tools in impact assessment that are used for evaluating agricultural research projects.

About 20 participants from 11countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal) attended the workshop. The participants included 6 PhD students from UGB.

March 2009

• Board highlights Africa Rice Center’s achievements

At the Board meeting held, 7-10 March, the following achievements of the Director General Dr Papa Abdoulaye Seck and the staff of the Africa Rice Center were applauded:

• Significant increase in contribution from member States

• Increase in the number of member States from 17 in 2006 to 22 in 2008

• Doubling of the Center’s budget compared to 2007

• Clear and coherent research agenda

• Progress in implementing  External Program and Management Review (EPMR) recommendations

• The Director General’s participation at the UN Meeting on Millennium Development Goals in September 2008

It noted the Center’s active participation in the CGIAR change management process, while emphasizing its unique model as a pan-African intergovernmental institution.

It welcomed Dr Henri Carsalade as new Board member and sent a congratulatory letter to Dr Kanayo F. Nwanze, former Director General of the Africa Rice Center on his appointment as the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

February 2009

• Africa Rice Center hosts Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) meeting

Africa Rice Center is an active steering committee member of the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) – a joint initiative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) – which seeks to double rice production over the coming 10 years.

CARD was officially launched in May 2008 at the Tokyo International Conference for Agricultural Development (TICAD-IV) in Yokohama, Japan.

The Coalition serves as a facilitating and coordinating mechanism, building on existing policies and programs, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and the African Rice Initiative of the Africa Rice Center.

A technical meeting of CARD was hosted by the Africa Rice Center, 2-5 February in Cotonou, Benin, to help the first group of CARD countries build the framework for the national rice development strategies (NRDS). About 45 participants attended this meeting.

• Maintaining stewardship over NERICA® quality

A delegation from the CGIAR Central Advisory Service on Intellectual Property (CAS-IP) led by its Project Manager Dr Victoria Henson-Apollonio met with staff from the Africa Rice Center, 13 February, in Cotonou, Benin to discuss issues relating to NERICA® branding and highlight the relationship between product quality and trust building.

As the expanding range of NERICA® varieties is being increasingly adopted by smallholder farmers, it is important to protect the quality associations that have been set up by the Africa Rice Center.

CAS-IP, which helps CGIAR-supported Centers manage their intellectual assets as public goods, explained that the Africa Rice Center might consider maintaining the stewardship over NERICA® quality, especially concerning the quality of NERICA® seed production from breeder to foundation to the certified seed that reaches the farmers.

During the meeting, the participants were informed that molecular markers that could be used to verify the identity of NERICA® varieties released by the Africa Rice Center are available and that some of the African countries had in-country capacity to perform such tests. These molecular methods could be used to verify NERICA® identities in addition to some phenotypic markers currently used in the field.

• International experts team up to stimulate rice production in Africa and Asia

An international meeting to plan a project on “Green Super Rice for the Resource-poor of Africa and Asia” was hosted by the Africa Rice Center, 24-25 February, at its regional research station in Ibadan, Nigeria.

The project aims to reduce poverty and hunger and increase food and income security of resource-poor farmers in Africa and Asia through the development and dissemination of “Green Super Rice” varieties that give high and stable yield without requiring heavy inputs.

The African component of the project will be coordinated by the Africa Rice Center and carried out in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and national programs of project countries, non-governmental organizations, farmers’ associations and the private sector. Representatives of all the project partners attended the planning meeting.

The project targets at least 5 million poor rice farmers, including 3.5 million women farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia and South Asia. The long-term (10 year) goal of the project is to increase rice production by about 10% in the rainfed and irrigated areas of those regions. In sub-Saharan Africa, the project covers Nigeria, Liberia, Rwanda, Uganda, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania.

• Stakeholders take stock of stress-tolerant rice for Africa

Stakeholders of the project on “Stress-tolerant rice for poor farmers in Africa and South Asia (STRASA) met, 26-27 February, at the Africa Rice Center regional station in Ibadan, Nigeria to review the progress made by the project and plan for 2009.

Funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the STRASA project aims to accelerate the development and delivery of improved rice varieties that are tolerant to five major stresses – drought, submergence, salinity, iron toxicity and low temperature.

Africa Rice Center is IRRI’s main partner in implementing the African component of this project. The project member countries in Africa comprise Benin, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal in West Africa as well as Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda in eastern and southern Africa.

The project highlighted the following achievements at the meeting:

• Production of seeds of improved and stress-tolerant varieties ready for evaluation in the project countries through farmer participatory varietal selection;

• Training of national scientists, technicians and farmers in modern breeding approaches, improved seed production and impact assessment;

• Implementation of improved and standardized screening facilities at the research stations of Africa Rice Center for the different stresses; and

• Establishment of a network of national scientists and partners in the project countries

In addition to representatives from 16 sub-Saharan African countries, the President of the West and Central Africa Women Rice Farmers’ Association, Mrs Penda Gueye-Cisse as well as private seed producers were invited to the meeting to give their feedback.

January 2009

• USAID and Africa Rice Center join hands to provide emergency assistance in West Africa

To assist vulnerable households who have been severely affected by soaring rice prices, the Africa Rice Center with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the USA Government’s Famine Prevention Fund facility, is spearheading a 2-year emergency project to boost the rice production in four West African countries – Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.

The project seeks to improve farmers’ access to: (i) high quality seed of improved rice varieties; (ii) mineral fertilizer; and (iii) best-bet rice knowledge.

It aims to assist at least 10,000 farm families, especially vulnerable households, and raise rice production by at least 30,000 tonnes in each of the project country through increased use of high-yielding rice varieties, improved farming methods and fertilizers.

The project is encouraging the involvement of the private sector in each country, particularly in the area of agro-input supply. It is also promoting community-based seed systems (CBSS).

In addition to the Africa Rice Center, the project partners include the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), IFDC, and national agricultural research and extension systems.

The USAID-funded rice emergency project was launched in each of the four project countries in January 2009 – 20 January (Senegal), 23 January (Mali), 27 January (Nigeria), 30 January (Ghana). All the stakeholders including the project partners, public and private sector representatives and NGOs participated.