Côte d’Ivoire

General Information

· Main climates: Tropical Wet and Dry, Tropical Wet

· Total land area: 31 800 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources: 76.7 km³

· Incoming water flow: 1.0 km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ 1 484

· Main food consumed: Roots & tubers, Rice, Oil & fat, Maize, Fruit

· Rice supply, 1999: 111.4 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

The following table shows rice production in different zones

The following table shows the rice cropping seasons.

Production Practices

The following figure shows the harvested areas from different ecologies during the last five years.

Rice production is practised by about 8 percent of the population. The average farm size is about 0.8 ha in upland and 0.3 ha in irrigated rice. Upland rice is generally grown as a mono-crop or as in a mixture with other food crops following the slash-and-burn shifting cultivation almost without any application of chemical fertilizer and other ago-chemical. In special project areas of rice-cotton and rice-soybean, upland rice production involves mechanical land preparation, line seeding and fertilizer application. In lowland rice systems land preparation is generally done with power tillers, transplanting is used for crop establishment, and moderate to high rate of fertilizer is generally applied. Weeding is done manually. Farmers do not have appropriate tools and equipment for harvesting and threshing of rice. A number of improved rice varieties have been released for cultivation.

The following table shows the rice responses to fertilizer application.

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production

There are several constraints to sustainable rice production in Cote D'Ivoire. Following are the majors:

• Dominant of upland shifting cultivation

• Drought stress, lows soil fertility, erosion of soil and soil fertility in upland areas which is the dominant rice ecology

• Blast and weed competition

• Inadequate and Irregular input supplies: seeds, fertilizer and credit

• Lack of well-defined rice policies: rice has been given low priority in national policy

• Weak research and extension support

• Poor road networks and marketing systems

The following table shows the rice production costs.

Sustainable rice production depends greatly on appropriate policy to provide farmers with support in inputs supply and marketing of products. The improvement and development of lowland production systems with improved water supply and control would be essential.

Research and Development Institutes

· Centre de recherches rizicoles Ferkessedougou, Ferkessedougou

· Centre international de multiplication et d'approvisonnement de semences de selection, Dabou

· Institut des savanes, B.P. 633, Bouake 01, Phone: 635121 Telex: 69138 ADRAO CI Fax: (225) 632045

· Ministere de l'agriculture et des ressources animales, 01 BP 147

· Projet Serebou Gestion, B.P. 161, Abidjan 04, Phone: (225) 216590 Telex: (983) 22371 VELOP CI Fax: (225) 210239

· Societe pour le developpement et l'exploitation du riz, Dekokaha,

· Institut des savanes, Station experimentale de Gagnoa, Gagnoa

· Institut des Savanes (IDESSA), B.P. 633 Bouake, Cote D'Ivoire

· WARDA, B.P. 2551 Bouake, Cote D'Ivoire; Fax 225 634714; Email [email protected]

· M. G. Karidioula, IDESSA/DCV, 01 B.P. 633 Bouaké 01, Côte d'Ivoire, Tel: 63 51 21/63 51 22, Fax: 63 20 45

· IDESSA/DCV, 01 BP 635 Bouaké 01, Côte d’Ivoire, Tel: 63 51 21/63 51 22, Fax: 63 20 45

· Service Agronomique au Projet National Riz (PNR), Ministère de l’Agriculture et des Ressources Animales, 01 BP 147, Abidjan 01

· Direction des Productions Vivrières, Ministère de l’Agriculture et des Ressources Animales, Abidjan, Tel.: (225) 20225952