Streamlining Policies for Enchancing Rice Production in Africa: PastExperiences, Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward
2008
There is a consensus that African development confronts several
challenges, which include alleviating widespread poverty and
unemployment, providing basic foods for the people, containing the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, eliminating gender disparities and ensuring
sustainable management of natural resources. In order to overcome the
problem of food supply, investment policies have focused on certain
commodities. Rice ( Oryza sativa ) has been at the centre of
particular policy attention in West Africa since the 1970s, following
the formation of West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA). Even
though substantial investments and policy actions have been undertaken,
the results belied the efforts made and expectations nursed. Africa
today still depends on rice imports at a scale never imagined and
domestic rice production programmes have been largely unsuccessful. The
question is: What went wrong? Why has Africa been unable to produce
enough rice to stem imports? Why did the initial investments in
irrigation schemes and programmes fail? Now that attention is on
expanding rice cultivation to other parts of Africa, what policy
imperatives are essential to ensure sustainable rice production? This
paper examines these issues by drawing experiences from several
countries across West Africa. The overall objective is to provide
appropriate policy framework for the expansion and sustainable
production of rice to new areas in Africa. Specifically, the paper
examines some of the policies pursued in the past in a number of
countries and the reasons for their ineffectiveness. Drawing on the
benefits of past experiences, the paper makes proposals for improved
policy environment to support the new initiatives to increase rice
output in the continent.
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