By Ernest Harsch When drought came two years ago to Zaguiguia, in western Côte d'Ivoire, only one variety of rice grew well, the New Rice for Africa (Nerica). The next season all the farmers in the region wanted Nerica seeds, but...
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By Ernest Harsch When drought came two years ago to Zaguiguia, in western Côte d'Ivoire, only one variety of rice grew well, the New Rice for Africa (Nerica). The next season all the farmers in the region wanted Nerica seeds, but not enough were available, says Albertine Kpassa, a local farmer. In Saioua, in the central part of the country, another woman farmer, Elise Digbeu Ori, prefers Nerica because it matures early, bringing in quick income. That means a lot, she says, because I have six children, and all are in school. In the neighbouring country of Guinea, where the first Nerica varieties were introduced in 1997, Mamady Douno cultivates a rice field in Maferenya. Since I started to grow this rice, I no longer buy rice on the market, the father of 10 told a local reporter. With Nerica, I can feed my family, pay my kids' school fees and be sure of having food all year. On a continent where the struggle to grow enough food is often a challenge and a staggering one-third of the population is undernourished, farmers in nearly a dozen countries in West and Central Africa are now achieving bountiful rice harvests. They are growing not only enough to feed their families, but also sizeable surpluses to sell in the markets. Nerica originally developed by scientists of the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), an intergovernmental rice research centre is a cross between an ancient, hardy African rice variety and a high-yielding Asian variety. It combines features of both: resistance to drought and pests, higher yields even with little irrigation or fertilizer, and more protein content than other types of rice. Quite simply, It is a miracle crop, WARDA Director-General Kanayo Nwanze told Africa Recovery. He was interviewed during the Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development (29 September1 October), at which Nerica featured prominently.
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