NERICAs gather Momentum

Efforts to widen dissemination of New Rices for Africa (NERICAs) received a boost in May, thanks to African Development Bank funding for a new project to be implemented by the Africa Rice Initiative (ARI). The project has four major components: technology transfer, production support, capacity building, and project coordination.

“The launching of the AfDB-ARI project is especially rewarding for us because it validates our creation of ARI for coordinated dissemination of NERICAs across Sub-Saharan Africa” said Kanayo F. Nwanze, Director General, The Africa Rice Center. He added that the project was endorsed by NEPAD as one of the “best practices worth scaling up.”

This regional launch of the project in Accra was significant not only for Ghana, but also for The Gambia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. For the three French-speaking pilot countries—Benin, Guinea and Mali—the regional launch was conducted in Conakry, Guinea. The launches mark the culmination of months of preparatory work by ARI and partners for the $35 million grant and loan agreement to support dissemination of NERICAs in seven West African countries over five years.

“We are equally indebted to The Rockefeller Foundation, which has championed the cause of ARI right from the beginning, as well as to Japan, UNDP and Sasakawa Global 2000 who are staunch supporters and partners of ARI” said Dr. Nwanze.

The project seeks to help small-scale producers in pilot countries to improve rice production and incomes through the dissemination of NERICA varieties and complementary technology from WARDA. About 80 percent of the targeted beneficiaries are poor people living in rural areas, mostly women.

The project estimates that about over 33,000 farm families will be involved in the participatory variety selection (PVS) strategy to accelerate dissemination of NERICAs. At the end of the project, an estimated 400,000 hectares of additional land is expected to be brought under NERICA cultivation. The rice import bills of the seven countries are expected to be reduced by about $100 million.

According to WARDA economists, rice demand in West and Central Africa is growing at 6% per annum—faster than anywhere else in the world. The growth is largely the result of urbanization (which is growing at the rate of 3.5% per year in Africa, again the fastest in the world) and changing consumer preferences. As domestic rice production alone cannot meet this rising demand, rice imports in the region have increased eight-fold, to 4 million tons per year since the 1960s, at an annual cost of over $1 billion.

“The launch of the new project is timely,” commented Inoussa Akintayo, ARI Coordinator. “The advantages of NERICAS are higher yields, early maturity, resistance to local stresses and good taste.”

Under farmers’ conditions, NERICA varieties raise the yield of upland rice from less than 1 to more than 1.5 tons per hectare. With minimal application of fertilizers, yields can reach 3 tons per hectare. NERICAs mature 30 to 50 days earlier than other rice varieties, a trait that is particularly valuable for rural women to bridge the 'hungry season,' a time when food stocks from the previous harvest have been exhausted and the current crop is not fully mature.

Upland NERICAs are planted on more than 100,000 hectares across Africa, including about 70,000 hectares in Guinea and more than 10,000 hectares in Uganda. The project plans to tackle seed shortages, the biggest bottleneck in dissemination of NERICAs.

The Africa Rice Center and its national partners have recently achieved another scientific breakthrough: the development of NERICAs for lowlands. The new varieties are already gaining popularity among farmers. Four lowland NERICA varieties were released in Burkina Faso, and two in Mali in early 2005.

Dr. Nwanze cautioned that technologies such as upland and lowland NERICAs alone cannot bring about an agricultural revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. These innovations need to be complemented by political and social stability, sound agricultural policies, removal of unfair subsidies, improved infrastructure, public-private partnerships, access to credit, competitive local and regional markets, and political commitment at the highest levels. “Only then will we be able to capture the full benefits of breakthroughs such as upland and lowland NERICAs,” he concluded.

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