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 NERICA Consortium
 Participants
at the International Workshop on New Rice for Africa unanimously agreed to form
a Consortium to coordinate wide dissemination of NERICA (New Rice for Africa) to
millions of poor farmers, many of them women, in Sub-Saharan Africa. The NERICA
Consortium is the implementing body of the African
Rice Initiative (ARI), that was launched in March 2002.
The
NERICA Consortium for Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa is unique in
that it embodies networking institutions and stakeholders. The Consortium is
expected to include the participation of a full range of stakeholders—national
agricultural research and extension systems; donors, including UNDP, Japan, the
World Bank, the African Development Bank, the
Rockefeller
Foundation, the US
Agency for International Development (USAID); non-governmental organizations,
including Sasakawa Global 2000; farmers’ organizations and the private sector.
The workshop was attended by over 90 participants from African and Asian
research institutions, including several Ministers and Vice-Ministers from West
and Central African states, the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, senior
officials from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the United Nations
system and WARDA.
The NERICA Consortium will mobilize political
commitment and resources and facilitate operational activities, monitor
progress, share information and ensure the participation of all stakeholders. An
Action Plan discussed at the workshop will be elaborated as the basis for
Consortium activities
The
Consortium intends to push forward with the widespread and rapid dissemination
of the NERICA rice varieties to
poor farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, leading to increases in their incomes
and nutritional needs and to eventually
reducing rice imports.
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