Guinea-Bissau

General Information

· Main climates: Tropical Wet and Dry, Tropical Wet

· Total land area: 2 812 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources: 16 km³

· Incoming water flow: 9 km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ 573

· Main food consumed: Rice, Oil & fat, Nuts, Millet & sorghum, Roots and tubers

· Rice supply, 1999: 130.9 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

The following table shows the harvested areas from different producing zones.

In general rice is planted once a year.

Production Practices

The following figure shows the harvested areas from different ecologies during the last five years. Mangove or tidal wetland rice is dominant within the category of other ecologies.

Upland rice is 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. The size of lowland rice farms per farmer is generally small (from few hundred to few thousand square meters). Women cultivate rainfed lowland and mangrove rice, while men are dominant irrigated rice farmers. A number of improved rice varieties have been released for cultivation.

Land preparation for lowland rice is done either manually or with animal traction. Transplanting is the main method of crop establishment. Farmers generally apply little fertilizer to rainfed lowland. However, moderate to high rate of inorganic fertilizers is usually applied to irrigated rice. Weeding is generally done manually, although the use of herbicides is increasing in irrigated rice. Farmers do not have adequate appropriate tools and equipment for harvesting and threshing of rice.

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production

There are several constraints to sustainable rice production in Guinea-Bissau. Following are the majors:

• Drought in upland areas and drought and flash flood in rainfed lowland (or inland swamp) and tidal wetland (or mangrove) areas due to irregular weather.

• Acidity and salinity in tidal wetland (or mangrove) areas.

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

• Lack of small farm equipment especially for post harvest operations.

• Poor maintenance of developed swamps.

• Poor drainage, Iron toxicity in undeveloped swamps.

• Poor maintenance of dikes - Salt water intrusion.

• Lack of effective farmer organization and co-operative.

• Lack of a well-defined rice policy.

• Poor road networks and marketing systems.

• Weak research and extension support.

Sustainable rice production depends greatly on appropriate policy to provide farmers with support in inputs supply and marketing of products. Improvement of water supply and control in rainfed and tidal wetland rice production is essential.

Research and Development Institutes

· Comissariado da Agricultura e Pecuaria, P.O. Box 71 Bissau Fax: (00245) 212617

· Departamento de Pesquisa Agricola Ministerio do Desenvolvimento Rural e Pescas Caixa Postal 71 Bissau, Phone: 214438

· Direction d’Etude de la Planification et du Suivi des Politiques/Programmation- GAPLA, C.P.# 71, Bissau, Tel.: (245) 221200/254885 (D), Fax: (245) 221019

· INPA, Ministère de l’Agriculture, Forêt et Pêche, CP. 505, Bissau, Tel.: (245) 252763/73, Fax: (245) 252774

· Ministere du Developpement Rural et de la Peche Centre d'experimentation et de multiplication de Contiboel

· Ministerio do Desenvolvimento Rural e Pescas P.O. Box 71 Bissau

· Programme Riz, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa Agraria (I.N.P.A.), C.P 505 Bissau, Guinée Bissau, Tel: (245) 20 10 68/25 27 63/25 27 73, Fax: (245) 22 17 67/20 16 87/25 27 63; E-mail: [email protected]

· Rice Program, DEPA-CENEMAC-GUINEA-BISSAU, C. P. 71, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.

· Service regional developpement rural, Tombali-Catio

· Service regional developpement rural Balama, Balama-Bijagos

· Service regional developpement rural Bula,Bula

· Service regional developpement rural Farim Oid, Farim Oid

· Service regional developpement rural Gachen, Gachen

· Service regional developpement rural Galu, Galu

· Station experimentale agricole Caboxanque, Caboxanque

· Station multiplication semences Angue, Angue

· Station multiplication semences Contiboel, Contibuoel