News Release
Version
française
Embargoed for release until 00:01 GMT 6 August
2007
African rice production gets
major boost
With rising international rice
prices threatening to double their US$2 billion
annual rice import bill, the rice-consuming
nations of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have finally
received some good news.
Three of the world’s leading
international agricultural research institutes
have announced plans to combine their activities
in Africa and so create a powerful new force
focused on boosting African rice production and
saving the region millions of dollars in lost
foreign exchange.
The three centers are the
Africa Rice
Center (WARDA) based in Benin, the
Centro
Internacional de Agricultura Tropical
(CIAT) based in Colombia and the
International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) based in the Philippines. With only 13%
of the world’s population, Africa accounts for
32% of world rice imports, which makes it a big
player in the international rice trade.
In 2006, SSA imported more than 9
million tonnes of rice worth an estimated US$2
billion. With world rice reserves at the lowest
level since 1983-84, international rice prices
are expected to double in the next couple of
years. This is especially alarming for SSA
nations, which need to import about 40 per cent
of their rice to satisfy local demand.
In
a joint declaration
announcing
a major programmatic alignment, the three
centers – all of whom are supported by the
Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) – affirmed their commitment to bring
the best of science and their
experience in Asia, Latin America and Africa to
address the major challenges facing Africa’s
rice sector.
“To me this is the best way to
reach a consensus on rice research in Africa,”
said Dr Papa Abdoulaye Seck, Director General of
the Africa Rice Center (WARDA). “By harmonizing
our activities we can cover the whole continent,
have critical mass, address most of the problems
facing rice, and at the end of the day we can
have a very high impact.”
Among their initial proposals is
the establishment of a
sub-Saharan Africa
Rice Consortium (SARC), which will consolidate
the two existing regional rice networks – the
West and
Central Africa Rice Research and Development
Network (ROCARIZ) and the
Eastern and
Central Africa Rice Research Network
(ECARRN). The new combined entity will also
cover other parts of SSA that are not members of
the existing regional rice networks.
The three Centers have also
agreed that SARC will
provide a platform for collective action by the
three CGIAR centers and collaboration with
national agricultural research and
extension systems (NARES).
The Consortium will provide a united front for
promoting rice and rice research in SSA and a
common conduit for channeling technology and
information from international research to NARES
and farmers in the region.
Outlining SARC’s objectives, they
said they wanted to maximize the level of
coordination among the three Centers and their
interaction with NARES. They also hoped to
provide better farmer access to improved seeds
and technologies; and, develop a critical mass
of trained scientists, thereby enhancing
Africa’s capacity in rice research.
Other objectives include
improving knowledge sharing and training;
increased economies of scale through reduced
transactions costs in rice research in Africa
and globally; and better coordination of
research and development activities in the rice
sector in Africa with spillover to Asia and
Latin America in terms of germplasm use.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Media contacts:
Savitri Mohapatra, WARDA, 01 B.P.
2031, Cotonou, Benin; tel +229 21350188; fax
+229 21350556; email
s.mohapatra@cgiar.org
Edith Hesse, CIAT,
A.A. 6713, Cali, Colombia; tel
+57 (2) 4450000; fax +57 (2) 4450073; email
e.hesse@cgiar.org
Duncan Macintosh, IRRI, DAPO Box
7777, Metro Manila, Philippines; tel +63
25805600; fax: +63 25805699; email
d.macintosh@cgiar.org
