Background
Rice, one of the important grains, is strategically important for food security and nutrition in western Africa. The development of rice value chain is considered as an effective way to achieve zero hunger on the continent as well as improve the livelihood of small producers. Although the success of development of rice value chains varies from country to country in recent years, the region continues to face significant challenges in terms of effective policies, financial mechanisms, and technologies to upgrade rice value chains.
WFP places great emphasis on the capacity strengthening of smallholder farmers and the support of their market access. In 2018, the Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS) programme guidance was structured on the development of four pathways that mirror the theory of change of smallholder market access: inclusive aggregation, demand side, supply side, and enabling environment. In addition to this, WFP just newly released Post-harvest Loss Guidance for supporting food system transformation to reduce poverty and end hunger. At field level, WFP is helping farmers enhance postharvest management to complement agricultural productivity and contribute to strengthening the resilience of local food systems. With the proper training and equipment, smallholder farmers can adopt improved post-harvest management, reduce food losses and make food systems more resilient to shocks and stressors.
In 2021, the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), WFP China Centre of Excellence for Rural Transformation (WFP China COE) and Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) collaborated to support the development of the rice value chain in Africa. UNOSSC provided USD100,000 funding to strengthen the capacities of local stakeholders, including NGOs and government agencies, in Côte d’Ivoire through WFP China COE and Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM). A series of activities on rice production, processing and post-harvest management was rolled out in 2021 and 2022 by WFP China COE and CERFAM, such as on-site and online training offered by experts from China and Africa. With the successful exchanges and sharing knowledge and experiences between Chinese and African stakeholders on rice value chain development at the policy and technical levels in Côte d'Ivoire, resulted in further funding (USD600,000) from Gates Foundation, enabling WFP China COE and CERFAM to scale up support for rice value chains in Western Africa, mainly in Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea.
The WFP Centre of Excellence for Rural Transformation (WFP China COE) and the WFP Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) have jointly rolled out a pioneering Rice Value Chain Development Synergy between African and Chinese counterparts in 2022, seeking to gather like-minded academic collaborators to enhance the rice value chain development in Africa. The Rice Value Chain Development Synergy is a cooperation mechanism to connect research/technical institutions, COEs and partners from different sectors from China and Africa for the development of smallholder farmer-inclusive and gender-sensitive rice value chains in African countries.
Rationale
As the predominant dietary energy source in West Africa and the second most important source of calories in Africa, Rice is grown in about 40 out of 54 countries in Africa and rice cultivation is the principal activity and source of income for more than 35 million smallholder rice farmers in Africa. However, local rice production covers only about 60 percent of current demand in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in imports of 14-15 million tonnes per year (costing more than US$6 billion), which is a huge loss of the continent’s foreign exchange reserves. According to the International Rice Research Institute, there are a number of challenges to developing the rice value chain in Africa, including low-yielding rice varieties susceptible to pests and diseases and sensitive to adverse weather and soil conditions, traditional production and processing systems, inadequate postharvest management practices, limited market infrastructure and linkages, insufficient local agricultural policies to enable significant shifts etc.
In Cote d'Ivoire, rice is the commodity most consumed by the Ivorian population. The government is further asserting its commitment to achieving food self-sufficiency and combating food insecurity. National rice production has been less than half the demand for more than three decades despite various policies to develop the rice sector. A National Strategy for the development of the rice sector in Côte d’Ivoire was adopted in 2008 to cover the need of rice domestic consumption with locally produced rice by 2020. In Guinea, although rice is main crop, as well as the staple food of Guinean diet, it is the largest imported food item, making up almost 40% of all food imports and accounting for 690 thousand tons in 2020 and over USD 200 million annually. Domestic production is currently unable to meet demand, while imported products are generally much cheaper, and therefore more popular. Guinea’s largest suppliers of rice are India, China, Myanmar, Thailand, the United States and Pakistan.
In China, it has made remarkable progress in its rice sector, per capita grain possession exceeds 474.4 kg, which is higher than the international food security standard line, 400 kg per capita. More than 90 percent of rice is irrigated and, in some areas, two crops per year can be grown. One of the success factors of this achievement is the investment by the government and researchers in the seed-breeding of high-yield varieties. In recent years, the Chinese Government has been actively fostering mechanized farming and upgrading agricultural machinery with new measures. The new measures include subsidies from the government and loans from financial institutions for the purchase of machinery. Post-harvest loss management has played a significant role in contributing China’s achievement as well, such as promoting advanced and practical green grain storage technology and information technology to improve grain storage facilities.
Through South-South Cooperation, the experience and lessons learned at the technical and policy level from China could assist the African rice stakeholders in addressing some of the challenges encountered in the past few decades, by leveraging the Chinese good practices in rice production, processing, post-harvest management and market access. Moreover, Chinese experts could learn about the context of the African rice value chain and thus propose more effective and efficient solutions to their African counterparts. Therefore, a synergy meeting and policy dialogue will be required to foster knowledge transfer and discussion between the Chinese and African stakeholders in the rice value chain to improve food security.
WFP China COE, in collaboration with CERFAM, has already placed the rice value chain with high importance and is dedicated to enhancing China-Africa cooperation on the rice value chain. BILL&MELINDA Gates Foundation in China has been engaged with Chinese academic partners aiming to support Africa’s agricultural extension system for local capacity development in some Africa countries and has supported this project financially as well. It is the common vision that rice value chain enhancement would be a prime entry point for WFP and BILL&MELINDA Gates Foundation in China to jointly make their due contributions to support and help African nation’s capacity for food security.
Objective
The general objective of the Rice Value Chain Project by WFP with support from Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, is to strengthen the capacity of smallholder farmers mainly focus on rice value chain, especially the post-harvest loss management in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea through multi-diversified partnership and to facilitate South-South knowledge-sharing, mutual-learning, as well as technology and expertise transfer in advancing sustainable agriculture and rice value chain development.
The first synergy meeting and policy dialogue are the part of this project and the specific objectives of this synergy meeting and policy dialogue are suggested to:
• Introduction of the rice value chain projects in CIV and Guinea
• Main stakeholders share possible engagement related to rice initiative in Africa
• Exchange on experiences and lessons learned in rice value chain development
• Forge partnerships between China and African countries in knowledge exchange and capacity strengthening
• Identify opportunities in Sino-African collaboration on rice value chain development at technical and policy levels, especially on post-harvest loss management and market access for smallholder farmers.
Events arrangement
1. Event Format
The first synergy meeting and policy dialogue will be organised online by Zoom.
Zoom ID: 917 7339 4569 Passcode: 704118
2. Participants
Representatives from WFP China COE, CERFAM, WFP Africa Global Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, WFP Cote d'Ivoire CO, WFP Guinea CO, relevant government agencies, NGOs and research centres from China, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and other African countries.
For the first synergy meeting and policy dialogue, the expected participants are,
• National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration (NAFRA)
• Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire (MINADER)
• Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of the Republic of Guinea
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Beijing Office
• United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC)
• Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Zhejiang Province
• National Agency for Support to Rural Development of Côte d'Ivoire (ANADER)
• Agency for Rice Development (ADERIZ) of Côte d'Ivoire
• Africa Rice Centre
• Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS)
• Henan University of Technology
• Jiangsu University
• China Grain Reserve Group (Sinograin), LTD
• China Grain Wuhan Science Research and Design Institute
• COFCO
• Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa
• Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China
• Hunan Agriculture University, China
• Nanjing Agriculture University, China
• Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China
• Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, China
• Representatives from Yuanshi Seed Company
• Representatives from Qi Li Company
• China-Africa Green Agriculture Development Research Centre, China
• Sinograin Chengdu Grain Storage Research Institute
Representatives from WFP Headquarters, Regional Bureau, Country Office and Centre of Excellence are welcome to join the events.
3. Language
The meeting will be proceeded in English language.
4. Follow-up
The meeting exchange will support implementation of the rice value chain projects in CIV and Guinea.
The stakeholders’ dialogue & synergy meeting will be presentation slides and recordings will feed the WFP-China South-South Cooperation Knowledge Sharing Platform and Cloud School.
Agenda (Tentative)
