Africa to improve productivity especially rice, with huge potential returns for countries affected by climate change, agricultural food experts say.
Speaking in an interview with some media outlets, the Director General of AfricaRice for West and Central Africa, Dr. Baboucarr Manneh, hinted that the rice farmers normally developed could survive for more than two weeks under complete submergence, whereas existing rice varieties die after one week of floods.
The experts found that it can generate up to two tons per hectare more than rice varieties vulnerable to flooding.
“Until recently, no flood-tolerant rice varieties existed in Africa and farmerssuffered enormous losses due to floods,” says Venuprasad Ramaiah, head of the International Rice Genebank at the IRRI.
“Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania are among the most flood-affected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Ramaiah says the new varieties also produce a higher yield than existing types, even in drier periods.
“Their cultivation is expected to generate income that is comparable with other improved varieties in the market, in years with no floods,” he added.
Dr.Manneh explains that a gene for submergence tolerance (SUB1 gene) was created and transferred into flood-susceptible African rice varieties.
He observed that the SUB1 gene was discovered in 1996 and scientists began transferring it into the farmer-preferred variety in the early 2000s. The first high-yielding submergence-tolerant rice variety called “scuba rice” was released in 2009 in Asia.
“This goes to show that the technology has been validated and proven successful and what we’re doing is taking it further to tailor the needs of Sub-Saharan African rice farmers,” says Manneh.
During the flood season, the new varieties sustain productivity, helping farmers maintain a stable income in both stressed and non-stressed years.
Rice-producing African countries such as Tanzania are highly vulnerable toclimate change but rice farmers are particularly vulnerable to the crop as it suffers harsh climatic impacts including drought and flooding.
“Most African countries have an ambitious plan to be self-sufficient in rice and potentially become the new rice bowl of Asia, but flooding poses a threat to these ambitions,” Ramaiah adds.
Dr Manneh said that the two released varieties have reached more than 30,000 farmers in Nigeria.
“We are not stopping there yet,” says Ramaiah, adding that IRRI and AfricaRice are working with private seed producers, millers, rice traders, farmer cooperatives, and community organizations to design distribution schemes to get the rice to farmers in areas of need.
“With improved flood-tolerant rice varieties, smallholder farmers in the region are able to adapt better to the floods that used to destroy their crops, ensuring farmers’ yields and income.”
According to him, the innovation has the potential to generate at least US$3 billion in returns for African countries experiencing flooding in the next five years.
He says funding for agricultural technologies is crucial for food securityin Africa, adding, “Expanding the distribution of these varieties in Sub-Saharan Africa will benefit farmers and improve their livelihoods.”
The IRRI/AfricaRice innovation won US$150,000 this month (May 1) at the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech in the United States.
“With the winning prize, there is now the potential to expedite the positive results from field condition tests… and scaling up of adoption pathways,” says Manneh.
Meanwhile the country representatives, Ghana coordinator, cocoasoils, Dr Richard Asare said in a case of Ghana the challenges confronting the farming industry is issues of illegal mining popularly known as Galamsey.
According to him, this menace of Galamsey has destroyed farm land and our water bodies.
The government is trying possible to ensure that most galamsay bit converted into farming and by so doing it will help boost agriculture in Ghana.
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