Declaring
that “food independence is the most crucial of all the independences and is
even more important than political independence,” Dr Papa Seck, Director
General of the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) stated, “There is absolutely no
reason why Africa cannot feed itself.”
Concerning
rice, which is now the most rapidly growing food source across Africa, Dr Seck expressed
his conviction that Africa has the potential to not only become self-sufficient
in rice, but also to become a net exporter onto the world market.
Africa
has the land, the water and the ecologies and climates to grow millions of tons
of rice. Research has provided technologies in the form of new varieties and crop
management options to make intensive and extensive rice production and
processing truly profitable on a wide scale if the mechanization challenge is
solved.
The
rate of urbanization in Africa is greater than in any other region of the
world, and this means a shift toward convenience foods like rice. Both
urbanization and rice-consumption rates are continuing to increase, while
Africa as a whole depends on imports for 40% of its rice.
With
high food and fuel prices predicted to last well into the coming decade,
relying on imports is no longer a sustainable strategy.
“We
believe that rice sector development can become an engine for economic growth
across the continent and that this will contribute to eliminating extreme
poverty and food insecurity within Africa and raise the social well-being of
millions of poor people,” Dr Seck remarked.
To
achieve this vision, AfricaRice has developed its new strategic plan to realize
Africa’s tremendous rice potential.
Its
strategy has been carefully designed to contribute to the achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals in Africa — notably MDG1 (halving poverty and
hunger), MDG3 (promoting gender equality and empowering women) and MDG7
(greater environmental sustainability).
It
is also aligned with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme
(CAADP), in particular pillar IV which aims to improve agricultural research
and systems to ensure successful uptake of appropriate new technologies.
“We
must do research so that the rural world of tomorrow is much brighter and more
promising with better living conditions than that of today,” concluded Dr Seck.
