Innovative
R&D products, tools and approaches developed by the Africa Rice Center
(AfricaRice) and its partners to boost productivity in Africa’s rice farming
will be showcased at the first ‘Rice Innovations Fair of ScalableTechnologies’, 1-2 September 2014, in Cotonou, Benin.
The
technologies on display will include, among others, new climate-smart ARICA rice varieties; SMART-valleys, a low-cost participatory and
sustainable approach to develop inland valleys in sub-Saharan Africa for
rice-based systems; mechanical weeders;
power tillers; an energy-efficient
rice parboiler; and RiceAdvice, a decision support app for
providing farmers with field-specific management guidelines.
The
main objectives of the ‘Rice Innovations Fair’ are to raise awareness about the
latest innovations as well as to identify with development partners, donors and
researchers promising scalable technologies and define dissemination pathways.
The first day of the event will focus on
the presentation of eleven technologies, followed by discussions to define
dissemination pathways for each innovation.
The second day will be a visit to the Ouinhi
district in Benin, to see inland valleys that have been developed using the
Smart-valleys participatory approach. These achievements are the result of our
partnership with the Benin extension agency called Cellule Bas-Fonds, part of the Genie
Rural.
The 2-days event is expected to be highly
interactive in order to maximize knowledge exchange among participants and
establish new contacts between researchers and representatives of the
development sector.