Cover the rice Africa ...

Rice is a staple food for millions of Africans and is important for achieving food security. However, in Africa, rice has a yield of less than 1.4 tonnes per hectare compared to the world average of 3.4 tonnes per hectare per year. Thus, the rice is not enough product in Africa to cover all needs.

The rice crisis in 2008 in Africa was already provided for by AfricaRice has alerted its member states a year before the crisis. The crisis has triggered a number of actions on rice production, including advocacy.

These pleas have contributed rice production interests in African countries and consequently to an increase in rice production. Many African countries have increased their rice production to be without much be self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency is one of the key food security assessment.

"Africa Riceing: The mobilization and application of science and the additional resources to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production" is one of the themes of the plenary session of the second day of the Week of Agricultural Sciences in Africa (# AASW7). "Africa Riceing" is a new business model developed by AfricaRice.According to Dr Harold Roy-Macauley, AfricaRice Director General, "Africa is the state or Riceing Africa was self-sufficient in rice.".

For this concept, AfricaRice and its partners are trying to meet the food program in Africa. To this end, Dr Harold Roy-Macauley think the agenda for African science basis for the transformation of this initiative developed by AfricaRice. The demand for rice will continue to increase in Africa and there is provided an estimate of 22 million tonnes by 2025.

"Africa Riceing" is a process by which African countries meet their needs in the rice sector through the use of technology and working with partnerships to transform African rice production.

It is a strong, in terms of investment concept, it requires several million dollars but meets the priorities of African countries in the development of rice production.

Several strategies are implemented by AfricaRice to achieve this goal. The irrigation and the expansion of cultivated areas, combined with the use of search technologies (map of irrigated areas, water management system) is needed to achieve this. high-yield rice varieties and good agricultural practices developed by AfricaRice and its partners must be taken into account in order to face the various challenges in Africa to increase rice production.

Similarly, the process of collaboration between the various partners must be established as innovation platforms in the rice value chain in order to move towards more efficient models.

Young people and women must also be taken into account and tools must be developed for this purpose. So we must put hoes in museums and create tools that reduce the constraints of rice production. Similarly, the issue of post-harvest and market access should be considered in this process.

The model "Africa Riceing" demonstrates how technologies Rice could be used to ensure the creation of income and employment for young people.

Blogpost by Christel KENOU, ckenou (at) gmail.com, # AASW7 social reporter. 
This post Represents the author's views only. 
Picture courtesy AfricaRice