Coalition aiming to lift Africa's rice yield

With the world's food supplies a growing social concern, the government plans to create an international organization to help double Africa's rice production.

The new group aims to offer more efficient distribution of aid to African nations by bringing together international and national organizations already providing assistance to the continent.

In all, about 30 organizations are expected to join, including the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

The new organization will seek to ease social problems, such as recent riots over sudden hikes in food prices, and support African nations in moves toward economic independence.

The group is expected to begin its efforts in October with the initial participation of seven organizations, including the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the International Rice Research Institute.

The group's headquarters will be in Nairobi. Among other organizations to be invited to join are the World Bank, the U.N. Development Program and the U.S. government.

Rice is the staple of many nations in western Africa. Consumption of rice is also rising in eastern Africa.

However, at best, Africa's self-sufficiency in rice is only about 60 percent.

Global increases in food prices have directly affected the continent's poorest people, leading to famine and riots.

At the opening ceremony of the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) in Yokohama next Wednesday, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is expected to announce plans to double rice production in Africa over a decade.

The new organization would be the main vehicle for that plan. The group will analyze ways to raise rice production and select about a dozen nations as recipients of assistance.

Among measures to be implemented are: improving rice varieties, constructing small irrigation facilities, installing rice mills, providing assistance to small rice farmers to expand sales routes and expanding the use of a new variety, New Rice for Africa, which provides greater production in less-ideal climate conditions.

The ultimate goal is to trigger a "Green Revolution" like the one seen in Asia in the 1960s and thereafter, which helped provide a basis for subsequent industrialization.

Africa has much room for improved agricultural productivity, as rice productivity per hectare of land there is only about 40 percent that of Asian rice paddies.(IHT/Asahi: May 23,2008)