The Third Africa Rice Congress took place on 21-24 October 2013 in Yaoundé, Cameroon, co-organized by the Africa Rice Center and FAO in collaboration with the Government of Cameroon. With its main theme of ‘Rice science for food security through smallholder and agri-business development in Africa’, the Congress took stock of advances in rice science and technology aimed at improving production, processing and marketing practices across the rice value chain in Africa. Attended by over 650 participants from 60 countries, the first two days of the Congress allowed participants to discuss scientific progress through presentations and poster talks, many of which dealt directly or indirectly with the use of biotechnologies, in five parallel sessions. A ‘Cameroon rice day’ was organized on 23 October while the final day included a Ministerial Policy Dialogue. The previous Africa Rice Congress took place in 2010. See http://www.africarice.org/arc2013/ (in English and French) for the Congress Declaration, daily digests, abstracts, presentations and more; an FAO press release at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/203574/icode/ (in Arabic, English, French and Spanish), together with a radio interview; or contact [email protected] for more information.