South-South cooperation on food security rice in west africa

By KANAYO F. NWANZE, P. JUSTIN KOUKA AND MONTY P. JONES
By crossbreeding African and Asian rice, international researchers have produced a "New Rice for Africa" (NERICA) which has high yield and high protein and grows well. Varieties are being cultivated by thousands of farmers in 17 countries which are members of the West African Rice Development Association (WARDA). The group is now proposing an African Rice Initiative to reach many more farmers and pursue an overall strategy for rice-based food security in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors are Kanayo F.Nwanze, Director General of WARDA; P, Justin Kouka, Executive Assistant of WARDA, and Mony, P. Jones, Deputy Director of Research of WARDA.
INTRODUCTION
Nearly half the 615 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live below the poverty line, surviving on less than US$1 a day. With the population growth rate exceeding the growth rate of regional food production, food security is a major chalenge. Since 80 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and depends on agriculture, the development of agriculture is synonymous with food security, poverty reduction and economic growth. The search for solutions is complicated by the high risks of environmental degradation due to unsuitable production practices and the weaknes of national research programs for the development of appropriate technologies.
Rice has great strategic importance in this equation. It is one of the major food crops in the farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 6.4 million hectares under rice cultivation. Of thant area, the West African subregion accounts for 4.38 million hectares or 68 per cent, expanded from only k1.59 million hectares in 1987. For the 240 million people of West Africa -one of every three persons on the continent-food today increasingly means rice. About 20 million West Africans are rice farmers, and most are women.
Major increases in rice consumption in West Africa have led to a wide and growing imbalance between demand and the supply produced by the region's rice farmers. The trends in rice consumption, production, and imports(figure1) show that, since 1980, regional demand has grown at an annual rate of 5.9 per cent, kwhile regional supply has grown by only 4 per cent, mainly achieved by reducing the traditional cultivation of coarse grains. The widening gap has been met by imports which have risen at the annual rate of 6.8 per cent.
The most important factors contributing to the shift in consumer preferences toward rice are urbanization and associated changes in family occupational structures, as shown by Diagana et al. (1999). This research also confirmed that rice is no longer a luxury food, but a major source of calories for the urban poor and a major component of their food budgets. As such, rice availability and rice prices have become major determinants of the welfare of the poorest West African consumers who are least food-secure.
In the "Green Revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s, rice together with wheat were the main crops, and Asia was the main beneficiary. Asian countries provided the most favorable environments for its technology package of high-yielding varieties, irrigation, fertilizer and pesticides, optimal cropping calendar, etc. Why did this technology transfer either not arrive of fail on arrival in sub-Saharan Africa? The key reason is that that the technology of the Green Revolution was not suited to the environment of poor African farmers, mainly consisting of traditional subsistence systems in marginal areas. Irrigated rice and wheat were not the main crops at the time, and irrigation projects still frequently meet with partial success in West Africa, because of technical and socioeconomic misunderstandings and inappropriate policy decisions.
Mechanization was introduced to intensify land preparation and management and to increase land under cultivation, but generally it has not proven sustainable. Chemical fertilizer came into use on a small share of rice fields, mostly by lowland male farmers with larger holdings (Adesina, 1996). The technology package did not meet the immediate needs of poor farmers, required them to obtain additional inputs they found difficult or impossible to afford, and did not relate their decisions about crop intensification to the highly differentiated systems of rural social organization and political power.
Sub-Saharan Africa must carve its own indigenous model of agricultural development. This requires new thinking and approaches based on in-depth empirical understanding of local environmental, biophysical and socioeconomic conditions faced by the poor farmers who were missed by the Green Revolution. The focus should be on simultaneous efforts to (a ) boost agricultural productivity without a major increase in external inputs; (b) conserve and even improve the environment;(c) benefit the poorer segments of the population, both rural and urban, and (d) most important, incorporate indigenous knowledge systems and high participation by farmers at the grass-roots level so that they take ownership of the changes. A fundamental difference from the Asian experience is that this approach develops technologies adapted to the sub-Saharan Africna environment to fit the technology. The magnitude of this difference is light years apart.
WARDA'S ROLE
The West African Rice Development Association (WARDA) was established in 1971 as an autonomous intergovernmental research group by 11 West African states, with the assistance of three international donor-development organizations (UNDP, FAO, and the UN Economic Commission for Africa). In 1987, WARDA joined the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)and relocated its headquarters from Monrocvia, Liberia, to Bouake, Coted' lvoire. Today, the Association is made up of 17 West and Central African member states. Its mission is to contribute to food security and poverty eradicaiton in poor rural and urban populations, particularly in West and Central Africa, through research, partmerships, capacity strengthening and policy support on rice-based systems. It does this in ways that promote sustainable agricultual development based on environmentally sound management of natural resources.
WARDA recongnized that it cannot achieve its mission alone and has therefore established strong parnerships, including South-South and triangular collaborative relationships, to respond to the challenge posed by food security and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan African. The major pieces are now in place for a successful takeoff of sustainable rice production in West and Central Africa as a major contribution to food security.
The structure of WARDA coovers the research -to -development continuum, with its two technology development programs for rainfed rice and irrigated rice, and its support program fo rrice policy and development. Emphasis is given to carrying out indigenous agricultural research, tailoring activities specifically to African environmental conditions, and pursuing agricultural development and reliable food surpluses as the precondition for expansion of the industrial sector and economic development.
Crucial for WARDA's success is that it is not merely a research center, but rather a regional rice research community with shared goals and objectives.its primary partners are the national agricultural research systems (NARS) of its member states. In 1991, twenty years after its establishment, WARDA embarked upon a new mode of operation by creating Tash Forces made up of groups of these national partners. The Tash Forces bring a "bottom up " approach to WARDA's research agenda and partnerships. They have been highly successful in the development and dissemination of technologies and information. They have also served as the basis for other networks. These include:
? the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice for Africa(INGER-Africa).
? The Inland Valley Consortium (IVC), which works on the sustainable development of inland valleys-a robust ecology with potentially high gains in productivity. It brings together experts from agriculturlal research institutes and international organizations with " on the ground" workers provided by national agricultural research systems(NARS) national partners in the consortium include extension services, NGOs, and universities from ten WARDA member states. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and three of the CGIAR international agricultural research centers also participate.
? The Human Health Consortium works on the human-health impact of wetland agricultural development, especially with respect to malaria and schistosomiasis. It brings together six national research institutions in Cote d'Ivoire and Mali with WARDA and the World Health Organization's Panel of Experts on Environmental Management for Vector Control.
? The open center approach, where by WARDA hosts staff of other institutions to work on projects for both their home institution and WARDA. Four staff have come from Japan (JIRCAS and JICA), 2 UN Volunteers were assigned from the Philippines and Myanmar, and WARDA's own staff have included specialists from developing regions other than Africa.
RICE AGRO-ECOLOGIES IN WEST AFRICA
Rice in West Africa is cultivated in diverse ecosystems and farming systems, each facing different production constraints and technical change requirements. The principal technical factors that determine such ecosystems are surface hydrology and soils. Rice ecosystems are further categorized by biological stress factors as well as human factors, which distinguish the different farming systems. The main rice ecologies in West Africa are rainfed systems, subdivided into uplands (40 per cent) and lowlands (38 per cent). The balance consists of irrigated systems (12 per cent), mostly in the Sahelian zone; mangrove rice (4 per cent); and the traditional deep water or floating rice systems (6 per cent).
Weeds are one of the major constraints of rice production across agroecosystems. Rice farmers in upland, lowland and irrigated systems know that weeds are the main factor limiting their yields, according to a survey by WARDA and the Natural Resources Institute of the United Kingdom. Weeds can reduce rice production by as much as 25-30 per cent, and sometimes up to 40 per cent. Farmers devote between 20 and 40 per cent of their labor on rice crops to weed control, with women and children doing the majority of weeding.
Upland roce makes up over 70 per cent of the area under rice culture in west and central Africa in the humid forest zone where annual rainfall is 2,000 mm or more. However, rice productivity is very low, averaging only one ton per hectare. Infertility related to acid soils is the principal cause, coupled with weeds. In addition, highly variable rainfall in the forest and savanna zones of West Africa can intrduce water stress to rice at any stage of crop development.
The main biological stresses that cause considerable losses in rice production are blast disease, rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) and the African rice gall midge (AfRGM). Blast is an especially serious problem in upland rice, while RYMV is a major production constraint in irrigated and rainfed lowland ecosystems.
Rice cultivation in sub-Saharan Africa is based on the introduced Asian species, Oryza sativa, but landraces of the African indigenous species, Oryza glaberrima, are also grown in small traditional production systems in rainfed and deepwater ecosystems. However, despite its high yieldingcapacity, the Asian species does not have the resistance to local conditions that the African species has. O. Glaberrima is a rich reservoir of useful genes for resistance to diseases and insect pests, as well as tolerance for acid soils, iron toxicity, drought, unfavourable temperatures and excess water.
BIRTH OF A NEW TYPE OF RICE PLANT
With traditional farming systems, improved technologies are more likely to be adopted where they (1) address major constraints as perceived by the famers, (2) match farmers' aspirations and resources, (3) do not require major changes in production methods, and (4) are not high -risk. Such criteria may prohibit many technologies that have succeeded in other parts of the world, but perhaps augur well for seed based technologies. This provided the impetus for WARDA's strategy for rice improvement. The objective was to combine the traits of local rice cultivars which are well adapted to specific agro-ecologies, and the greater yield potential available in exotic materials. The new plant types to be developed would have resistance to multiple stresses and require low management inputs.
African rice was domesticated in the region probably more than 3,500 years ago and its current generations have an inherited adaptation to African environments. Meanwhile, Asian rice was only introduced to Africa about 450 years ago, and has not had enough time to become fully adapted. Since their introduction, Asian rices have been preferred by African farmers because of their higher yield potential, and African rice has become increasingly marginalized. However, the exotic Asian rices simply do not have the genes to cope with the specific stresses of Africa's ecosystems.
In 1991, WARDA embarked upon an ambitious breeding program to cross indigenous African rice (Oryza glaberrima )with high-yielding Asian rice( Oryzasativa) and combine the best of the two species. Earlier researchers had experienced numerous failures, so the odds were against success for WARDA's breeders. They used a technique known as embryorescue to combat the problem of infertility, and then lines were fixed by a technique called anther culture. By 1994 they produced the first true breeding interspecific lines. This breakthrough has the potential to revolutionize the lives of millions of rice farmers throughout the region. Exploitation of the o. Glaberrima gene pool has increased the scope for the development of plant types requiring low management inputs (Jones et alk., 1997; Dingkuhn et al.,m 19970. This break through has also established WARDA's lead role in interspecific hybridization and anther culture for rice (Jones, 1999).
In late 1996, a new partnership arrangement was forged for joint Africa/Asia research on interspecific hybridization between African and Asian rice species, under the aegis of the Japan/US common agenda for cooperation. Funding and technical support are provided by the Government of Japan, the United Nations Development Program's Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (UNDP/TCDC), and the Rockefeller Foundation. WARDA coordinates and implements the project in collaboration with other research institutions. the division of labor is as follows;
? Assistance in gene-tagging is provided by institutions such as Cornell University (USA), THE Institut de Recherche pour le
Developpement (IRD, France), the International Rice Research Institute( IRRI, Philippines), and the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT, Colombia).
? Assistance in physiologica characterization of new interspecific progenies comes from partners in Japan such as Tokyo University, Kyoto University and the Japanese International Research Center for Agricultural Services (JIRCAS).
? Help in tagging fertility genes and screens lines from Africa is provided by the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS) in China.
This "Interspecific Hybridization Project (IHP) " has become an effective network of research institutions worldwide, drawing expertise from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. The project recently achieved abreakthrough in rice breeding and cultivation by crossbreeding the African rice and Asian rice, and generating a new product that WARDA has named NERICA for "New RICe FOR Africa." The ease and speed of its cultivation and its high yield offer a welcome relief to Africa's rice farmers, while its quantity and quality offer improved prospects for rice consumers.
Today, NERICAS are grown by farmers in all 17 WARDA member countries. The first two NERICAs have been officially released in Cote d'Ivoire (NERICA 1 and NERICA2). Adoption by farmers has been most dramatic in Guinea, where five varieties have been released. In 2000, an estimate 20,000 Guinean farmers grew NERIAs on 8,000 hectares, with production valued at US$ 69 million.
NERICA-WHAT IT MEANS
About 3,000 NERICA lines have been produced so far. Analysis of experience with these lines reveals that, from the cultivation stage up to consumption, NERICAs have a number of advantages over traditionally grown varieties (Dingkuhn and Randolph, 1997). These include:
? Rapid early vegetative growth, makin gthem more weed competitive and improving the productivity of scarce labor;
? Generally shorter growth duration than most traditional rice varieties, permitting double cropping;
? Better resistance or tolerance to drought and soil acidity than local cultivars;
? Resistance in many cases to major African endemic insect pests and diseases, such as AfRGM and RYMV;
? Improved yields per hectare
? Stable yields under both low and high input conditions (figure 2);
? Easy harvestingand threshing;
? Qualities when cooked and eaten which consumers accept;
? Higher protein content inseveral linesthat either of their parents, some averaging 10 to 12 per cent protein as against 8 per cent in traditional sativas.
The stability of NERICA yields and their resistance to stresses is expected to reduce the risk associated with rainfed rice cropping and increase productivity in farmers' fields. Higher productivity per surface area will reduce clearing of new land. Reduced risk will also give farmers incentives to use more inputs, intensify land use, and gradually abandon shifting cultivation practices, thereby improving the sustainability and productivity of rainfed environments in West Africa(figure 3).
Already in Guinea, farmers are intercropping NERICAs with legumes, made possible because of the land and time saved with the earliness and sustainability of the NERICAs.
Introduction of NERICAs is , therefore, not just a mere substitution of seed, but a first step towards stabilization and sustainable intensification of Africa's fragile uplands.
The idea is not to promote the replacement of local varieties by NERICAs. Rather, the strategy is to promote the integration of NERICAs into the existing varietal portfolio of farmers with complementary technologies, sound natural resource management practices, and improved rice marketing and distribution systems.
In contrast with the Asian Green Revolution, where only one variety (IR8) was widely distributed, the Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) approach described below advocates the introduction of a multitude of varieties, with the possibility of choosing varieties for various needs. A large number of NERICA lines have been included in PVS trials in all 17 WARDA member countries, and are being evaluated by mostly upland farmers.
The NERICAs combine the best characteristics of their African and Asian parents and thus provide hope to rice farmers. Their ability to suppress weeds reduces the labor of weeding, which is mostly done by women and children, freeing time to be devoted to other activities. Rice is no longer a luxury good, but a way of life. The impact of the new varieties on people's lives is highly significant, because they bring better health, increased income, food security, and poverty reduction. The platform for development and economic growth for the NERICAs (figure 4) outlines a short to medium term strategy to move quickly and efficiently in providing a better life to the resource-poor farmers in rainfed uplands. It should be possible to achieve such positive results in upland crop areas across all of West and Central Africa, with significant implications for development and political stability.
Beyond the current focus on upland areas, NERICA breeding work is also underway on varieties specifically suited to the more robust and productive lowlands, based on strains originally native to Japan (in the pipeline); and to the irrigated rice systems of the Sahelian zone, based on strains native to India (being developed).
The success with NERICAs is the result of effective partmerships, including South-South and triangular collaborative relationships. Support was given to the Interspecific Hybridization Project (IHP) from the UNDP Special Unit for TCDC, Japan, the Rockefeller Foundation, Gatsby Foundation and the British Department For International Development (DFID). The results are now being moved to the hands of farmers in West Africa, the ultimate beneficiaries of the new and improved technologies. South-South Cooperation has been instrumental through financial and technical support to move this process forward, thereby making WARDA's contribution to food security more viable.
BUILDING ON WARDA'S MODUS OPERANDI
The adoption and spread of NERICAs is attributed to a participatory approach in varietal selection (PVS) and community-based seed production (CBSS), as described in some detail below.
Participatory Varietal Selection
Eager to test its new products (NERICAs) with farmers, WARDA calleda meeting of appropriate rice stakeholders in 1996 to discuss field testing and technology transfer. Among those attending were NARS scientists, extension agents, farmers and NGOs. Aware of the benefits and success of participatory research elsewhere in the world (especially in India, Nepal and Rwanda), delegates decided to adopt participatory varietal selection (PVS). The dual approach of PVS is to introduce farming communities to new varieties and learn farmers' preferences in rice plants to feed back into the breeding process. In 1997, WARDA initiated PVS in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Ghana and Togo.
Training in PVS was provided to scientists and extension specialists fromthese four countries in an 8-day workshop in early 1998. They learned how to use participatory methods for local rice improvement and how to analyze results achieved by users, including specific analysis by gender. Next, this training was given to people from six more countries -Benin, Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. By April 1999, at least one two-person team of researchers from each WARDA member state had been trained in PVS methodology, which they took home, put into practice and shared with colleagues and extension partners. Through this route, NERICAs have been distributed to every member country of WARDA. The workshop is now held every year, with funding by UNDP/TCDC and the Rockefeller Foundation and participation by Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers funded by UNDP/TCDC. The latest workshop, lasting four days in May 2001, had 60 participants from 19 countries (of which 16 member countries).
Community-Based Seed Production System (CBSS)
Seed production and distribution are notorious bottlenecks in the dissemination of new crop varieties. National seed systems are too often under-resourced and therefore unable to meet production needs. The rapid adoption of NERICAs in several countries created a demand for rapid and efficient seed multiplication. African farmers, especially those in rainfed areas, rarely get their seeds supply from the national seeds supply from the national seed system (NSS), which is market-oriented and producescertified seeds to international standards. Instead, the majority of farmers regularly use farm-saved seeds of loca cultivars. They probably follow this method because the improved seeds are in short supply, are released irregularly, have poor quality control, are not well registered, and available from few private sector seed producers. In addition, after a variety is released, it takes six years of seed multiplication to produce enough to distribute to a large number of farmers.
To overcome these constraints, a new seed multiplication scheme has been introduced as an alternative seed-holder farmers, called the community-based seed production system (CBSS). In this system, the National Seed Service (NSS) certifies only the foundation seed, rather than holding off on certification until it produces mass quantites of seeds. This reduces the time required for makingthe seeds available to end-users and depends on farmers' practices and indigenous knowledge for the mass- production stage.
Successful implementation of CBSS depends on several factors. (1) Farmers are willing to produce their own seeds, but they need to be coached in seed production, as opposed to producing grain for food. (2) they must handle seeds carefully during harvesting, threshing, winnowing and storage. (3) seed must be properly dried, and before being harvested must be purified by removal of " off-types," i.e. grains which do not conform to the standard of the variety (a process called roguing).(4) finally, farmers should test the germination of their seed before giving it to their neighbors.
This model has several advantages over the conventional system. (1) it is an open system, utilizing the farmers' cultural practices and channels for seed distribution, and encourages the full promotion of traditional varieties. In contrast, the conventional system is top-down,with complete control by the seed authorities. (20 it reduces seed production costs, which are ismilar to the costs of producing paddy. (3) it reduces the time required for a newly released variety to reach the farmers from 7 years to 4 years. (4) it helps any farmer who is interested to produce seds with acceptable quality and be more self-sufficient.(5) it encourages the availability of seeds of acceptable quality at the community level and consequently improves productivity. (6) it facilitates the rapid spread of improved varieties into existing lowinput, subsistence crop production systems in West and Central Africa. With the high adoption of NERICAs in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, hana and other countries in the region, this system offers farmers an approach to seed production which they can manage and afford and which helps them ensure good maintenance of their seed from improved varieties as well as from traditional ones.
When CBSS started in Cote d'Ivoire in 1998, funding was provided by the African Development Bank. Since then, UNDP has provided strong support, joined by Japan and the World Bank. In April 2001, a contract for dissemination of NERICAs using CBSS by the Ivoirian Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources was signed by UNDP on behalf of th three partners. This initiative, in line with Cote d'Ivoire's program on poverty reduction and rice self-sufficiency, targets the rapid dissemination of NERICAs to reduce rice imports and achieve food security.
GUNEA- A PVS CASE STUDY
Despite its small size, Guinea is one of the top five rice producing countries in West Africa in terms of area cropped. About 70 per cent of Guinea's rice area is upland, for which little new technology had been developed. Spec8ifically developed for the low input, rainfed upland farming systems of West and Central Africa, NERICAs were thus an ideal candidate for Guinean farmers.
The chronology of work with NERICA lines and Guinean farmers shows a steady progression of farmer involvement and crop production from 1997 onward:
? 1997-116 farmers
NERICAs were introduced to 116 farmers using the Participatory Varietal Selection approach (PVS). Growth in demand was rapid, leading to a shortage of seed, so a community-based seed production system was added to the extension drive under way.
? 1998-1999-1,000 farmers
seeds of ten new varieties, including six NERICAS, were multiplied in 1998 for the 1999 cropping season. In addition, WARDA trained 62 farmers in community based seed multiplication at two sites. More than, 1,000 farmers participated in farmer-managed and PVS trials.
? 2000-20,000 farmers, 15,000 tonnes of rice
? the program grew to 20,000farmers, with some 200 NERICA lines being screened. Five NERICAs and an improved sativa proved particularly popular with farmers in PVS trials. Official research staions then produced about 10 tonnes of 9foundation) seed of three NERICAs; 1,000 seed production plots of a half-hectare each were established. At the same time, community-based seed programs produced seeds at several lowland sites; one location geared up to produce 40 tonnes. A thousand small demonstration cum production plots were established in areas prone to food shortages. Altogether, NERICAs were planted on 8,000 hectares, production was estimated to reach around 15,000 tonnes, and the crop value was expected to be US$2.5 million higher than the pre-NERICA level. NERICAs wee credited with bringing increased productivity and protein content,while also reducing labor for weeding and slash-and -burn agriculture through their adaptation to low-input systems.
? 2001-2002-300,000 tonnes of rice (projected)
? one -third of the year 2000 crop was to be kept as seed, providing a basis for future years' production. Guinean authorities project that 300,000 tonnes of NERICA will be produced in 2002, valued at US$ 69 million at today's prices. Surplus will be available for export to neighboring countries, where the demand for seed is also increasing rapidly.
? The present stage reached in Guinea involves not only the NERICAs, but the whole system from technology generation, through seed production, paddy production, rice processing and milling, to rice marketing. A recent UNDP evaluation estimated that farmers using NERICA in low-input systems are making an average gross margin of US$ 65 per hectare, and those using a medium level of inputs are grossing US$ 145 per hectare.
Particularly promising forthis program is the ongoing interest of key donors- World Bank, Special Program on African Agricultural Research (SPAAR), Japan, Sasakawa-Global 2000 and UNDP. Japan alone has contributed over $32 million for WARDA activities in the period 1980-2000. Also ,in 2000 a private production and trading company, SPCIA, became interested in complementing the work of other partmers in scaling-up NERICAs at farm level to improve farmers' profits. Finally, a new Warda project was launched in Guinea in 2000 to help farmers make best use of available technologies and financing; called Participatory Adaptation and Diffusion of Technologies for Rice-based Systems (PADS); the project is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, and is also active in Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia and Ghana.
LESSONS LEARNED AND THE WAY FORWARD
Rice is a way of life in West Africa, and improved rice farming is thus vital to the goals of increasing rural employment and income, reducing poverty, achieving food security, and promoting development and economic growth. To fulfil its role in this equation, WARDA helps to create and bring together five essential elements that can revolutionize rice farming: brainpower, technologies, farmer participation, political will, and South-South partnerships.
Brainpower: An underlying prerequisite is the existence of qualified, exerienced, dedicated and motivated african researchers and policymakers who can craft and implement a new model of African agriculture. WARDA is a living eaxmple of that dream. In the words of Gordon Conway, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, "We are witnessing the beginning of an African agricultural revolution. As in WARDA, it is led by dedicated and committed African scientists and administrators."
Technologies: WARDA uses both advanced technologies of the West and the indigenous knowledge and resources of Africa. Advanced technology has helped develop NERICAs, while WARDA's network in Africa has helped test and disseminate this new technology.
Farmer participation: Instead of producing indigestible outputs, science and technology is a means of translating farmers' wishes into reality by listening to them and takin gtheir problems back to the labs to find solutions. As a result, NERICAs and other technologies developed by WARDA have brought hope to millions of farmers whose lives depend on agricultural outputs.
Political will: WARDA's status as an intergovernmental association with a regional mandate means that its member states have a vested interest in seeing its work succeed. The all-important political will is there to make the technnologies work. Reinforcing the political support are the technical partnerships which WARDA has forged with the national agricultural research systems and related agencies in the region, giving them a sese of ownership of WARDA and its products.
South-South partnerships: WARDA has worked to strengthen South-South cooperation because these parnerships in turn improve its effectiveness. Research findings and the results from field applicatiions have been shared. Tracing similarities in the lessons learned has helped to accelerate not only the research and development work, but also the dissemination of new and improved technologies to farmers.
The community of international donors and development assistance organizations should take pride in and credit for help in makin ga success of WARDA's research and development work. This investment should now expand to enable a broad action program that will bring rice onto the plates of many of the poor in Africa and raise them out of the vicious poverty spiral that otherwise threatens to engulf them.
To this end, WARDA has proposed an Africa Rice Initiative, also knownas a NERICA Consortium for Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa. The basic premise of the Initiative is that the time has come to scale up operations to reach many more farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
The proposal is an outcome of an April 2001 workshop where all stakeholders were brought together by WARDA and UNDP/TCDC as co-spon-sors, with support and participation by Rockefeller Foundation, World Bank, African Development Bank and USAID.
The Initiative involves more than simply promoting NERICAs. Environmental problems, such as loss of soil fertility and soil erosion, are becoming acute. Complementary technologies, and enabling policy and market environments are needed to make the NERICAs work.
Scaling up is likely to be hampered by institutional and organizational factors such as limited capacity of national extension agencies, antional seed policies, and competing demands on scarce resources. Coordinated research will focus on finding ways to overcome these bottlenecks and verifying the ecological sustainability of th ecomplementary technologies. Research results then need to be dilivered to the appropriate audiences, for example, village chiefs, extension agencies, NGOs and policymakers.
To address these issues, the Initiative will habe two components: (a) a Stake holders' Platform to promote widespread dissemination of the technologies; and (b) a Research Network to integrate NERICAs and complementary technologies to further increase productivity and to safeguard the natural-resource base.
The African Rice Initiative fits into WARDA's broader strategy for regional development of rice. In the short term, the NERICAs and complementary technologies will help stabilize the fragile uplands, enabling farmers to intensify cropping while remaining on the same land parcels.
In the medium term, the Initiative proposal envisages a much greater role for rice in the ecologically more robust lowlands. These areas are underutilized in Africa and have much scope for rice intensification and crop diversification. Then in the longer term, WARDA sees the need to improve water management in the low-lands, since water is crucial to the rice crop, and improved water management is a good method of increasing productivity.
The initial NERICAs have been a success, and the Initiative will build directly upon their potential. Already, however, a second wave of upland NERICAs is coming out of WARDA, and NERICAs targeted for rainfed lowland and irrigated systems are in the pipeline. As we look at acelerated breeding, we see a major role for biotechnology.
It is clear from experience with West Africa rice development that science and technology have a major role in establishing a promising basis for food security and poverty reduction. To turn this promise into reality, the conditions are now in place for strengthened South-South cooperation aimed at achieving wider impact at the grass-roots level across the region.

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