News

• TheAmélioration et mise à l'échelle du Système d'intensification de la riziculture (SRI) en Afrique de l'Ouest (RICOWAS) aims to contribute to achieving rice self-sufficiency in the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by 2025, by increasing the productivity of rice-growing systems.èrice-growing systems of small-scale farmers and by améliorant leur resilience to climate change.
• Financed by the Adaptation Fund to the tune of $14 million, it will directly benefit more than 153,000 rice growers in thirteen (13) countries'Africa'and indirectly to 1,500,000 people.
• The four-year project will be implemented by the Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (OSS) while the Mali-based National Center for Rice Specialization will host the regional coordination unit, in partnership with Cornell University in the USA.

At a regional workshop held in Bamako from January 16 to 18, 2023, a new project was launched to strengthen the resilience of West African small-scale rice farmers to climate change.

Entitled Projet d'Amélioration et de Mise à Scale du Système d'Intensification de la Riziculture (SRI) en Afrique de l'Ouest -RICOWAS, this project aims to consolidate and scale up the achievements of the SRI, in particular by adopting the Climate Resilient Rice Production approach (CRRP).

SRI is a high-yield, low-greenhouse-gas-emission production technique that is one of the main achievements of the West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP), a World Bank-funded program implemented by CORAF from 2008 to 2019.

The RICOWAS project aims to support the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Rice Offensive -launched in 2013, in thirteen (13) of its member countries.

"Rice remains one of the main staple foods in West Africa, and is rightly at the top of the list of five strategic products in the ECOWAS Regional Plan for Agricultural Investment and Food and Nutritional Security (PRIASAN)," recalled CORAF Executive Director Dr Abdou TENKOUANO.

"We are in the midst of the Decade of Action leading up to 2030, and now more than ever is the time to step up efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Zero Hunger. A mid-term review of the implementation of the Rice Offensive calls for an acceleration of the pace, and it is in this respect that the RICOWAS project is salutary, as it comes at just the right time and is in line with this dynamic", declared Dr TENKOUANO.

The project has three (03) main components:

• Component 1 - Strengthening human and institutional capacities in the CRRP approach ;
• Component 2 - Helping farmers scale up the CRRP approach; and
• Component 3 - Strengthen communication, advocacy and partnerships to scale up the CRRP approach.

Building on the CRRP approach, RICOWAS will support the Rice Offensive to meet growing rice consumption needs, increase the livelihoods of rice-growing communities, enable the diversification of economic activities along the rice value chain and improve the country's overall economic and political well-being.

Specifically, it pursues the following objectives:

• Strengthen the resilience and capacity of small-scale rice farmers and other rice sector stakeholders in the region to use agro-ecological and sustainable land and water management strategies that respond to the threats of climate change in their respective localities;
• Help farmers implement and scale up the CRRP approach, and participate in other economic activities in the rice value chain;
• Support a communication platform and engage in advocacy to promote an effective exchange of knowledge and expertise between the various stakeholder groups in West Africa and beyond; and
• Facilitate the establishment of a coalition of partners at national and regional levels to scale up the CRRP approach.

 Ultimately, the project should contribute to achieving rice self-sufficiency by 2025 within the ECOWAS states - estimated at 24 million tonnes of milled rice by 2025 - and above all, free the region from its dependence on rice imports.

It is expected that 153,142 smallholders will benefit directly from the project. Indirect beneficiaries are estimated at 1,500,000 people in West Africa.

The Sahara and Sahel Observatory is responsible for project implementation, while the Regional Center of Specialization on Rice (CRS - Riz) based in Mali hosts the regional coordination unit in partnership with Cornell University in the USA. The CRS - Riz is one of the nine (09) Centers of Specialization and Excellence set up within the framework of the PPAAO. The RICOWAS project was approved on October 21, 2021, at the 37th session of the Adaptation Fund Executive Board.