The African continent had, in 1997, 56 countries and/or territories with a total population of about 758 million people. Rice was grown in 42 countries and/or territories. Rice is the main staple food of the population in Cap Verde, Comoros, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Reunion, Senegal and Sierra Leone. It is an important food of the population in Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Tanzania. In addition, the availability of rice has become an important factors of food security in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Ghana. Although majority of rice varieties cultivated in the continent today belong to O. Sativa, the continent is the home of O. Glaberima.

Separated by the Sahara desert, the conditions and the performance of rice production in Africa, north of Sahara (or North Africa) are different with those in Africa, south of Sahara (or Sub-Saharan Africa).

RICE PRODUCTION IN NORTH AFRICA

In North Africa, rice is grown mainly in the Delta of the Nile River in Egypt and in small areas in Algeria and Morocco. The japonica sub-species is dominant and rice is grown only under irrigation. Rice yields in Egypt were the world's highest in 1997. Production increase in North Africa has come from both the improvement in productivity and the increase in harvested area. On the average, rice yield in the region increased from about 5.46 tons/ha in 1975 to about 8.11 tons/ha in 1997, whereas the harvested rice area increased by about 35% during the same period.

Limited supply of irrigation water is the the main constraint of sustainable increase rice production. In addition, yield potentials of the current varieties have a reached plateau. The Egyptian rice programme has been exploring the possibility of hybrid rice technology as means to sustain the increase in rice production.

RICE PRODUCTION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the indica sub-species is dominant and rice is grown under varying agro-ecological conditions; with shifting upland rice having largest cultivated area. In 1995, about 41.9% of the harvested rice area in the sub-continent came from upland ecologies, 28.7% from rainfed lowland ecologies, 23.2% from irrigated ecologies, and 6.2% from tidal wetland (or mangrove) and other ecologies

Most of the national rice yields in Sub-Sahara Africa in 1997 were lower than 2.5 tons/ha. Only Madagascar and Nigeria have more than one million hectares of harvested rice in 1997. The growth rate of harvested rice area in the sub-continent has been very high. Regardless of this, rice production has not been able to meet the popular demand. It is estimated that the subcontinent is about 60 to 70% self sufficient in rice.

The growth in rice production has considerably slowed down since 1991. Moreover, there is increasing concern about the destructive effects of shifting upland rice cultivation on the environment such as deforestation and soil erosion. The Sub-Saharan Africa, however, still has vast land and water resources for the expansion of rice production, especially the inland swamps. It is estimated that there are about 70 million hectares of wetland, which are suitable for rice cultivation, in the sub-continent.

Sustainable increased rice production in the most of this sub-continent suffered from poor road and transportation networks, inadequate input and credit supply, and institutional support, especially the extension. The West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) has carried out the O. Sativa x O. Glaberima hybridization programme to develop varieties for rice production under low-input management. A number of promising varieties have been identified from this programme and they are ready for releasing to farmers for cultivation. In addition, sustainable rice production in irrigated and rainfed lowland (or inland swamps) areas in the sub-continent could benefit from the transfer of improved technologies from Asia and other continents.

Back to the top