African Union and AfricaRice Sign MoU to Promote Africa's Rice Sector

The African Union Commission (AU) and the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to partner in promoting the rice sector in Africa through research, development, supportive policies, and capacity building. The MoU signing was conducted last 12 July 2011 at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Despite the large increase in local rice production in several African countries, the continent still imports about 40 percent of its rice supply.  "However, Africa can turn around the situation as it possesses a large reservoir of underutilized agricultural land and water resources, and many technological options, developed by AfricaRice and its partners, are already available," said Dr. Papa Abdoulaye Seck, AfricaRice Director General. He also stressed that the new partnership would facilitate the required link with policymakers to transform the rice sector.

The signing ceremony was followed by a technical meeting to discuss possible areas of collaboration, including " the development of a regional value chain approach and a common market initiative for rice as part of the existing partnership between the African Union Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (AU-DREA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to develop regional value chains for strategic agricultural commodities."

Read more from the press release available at http://www.africarice.org/warda/newsrel-AfricaUnion-jul11.asp.