Senegal Seeks WARDA's Support for Rice Production

Senegal’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Hamath Sall, expressed the country’s urgent need for strong technical support from the African Rice Center (WARDA) to help boost domestic rice production. Senegal, like other rice-producing countries in Africa, is currently facing serious difficulties in view of the increasing world price for the crop. Sall urged rapid evaluation of NERICA (New Rice for Africa, a high yielding rice variety developed by WARDA) varieties suited for both lowland and upland ecologies for large-scale cultivation in the country.

The country hosts the center’s regional Sahel center for rice research in St. Louis, wherein several other high yielding rice lines were developed. For more than a decade, 70-90% of the Senegal River Valley has been covered by three high-yielding Sahel varieties. New rice varieties from the St. Louis center, with yield potential of 10 to 12 tonnes per hectare, were officially released by the government in December, 2007.

 WARDA and other international organizations are working in collaboration with Senegal’s agricultural research and development institution to help the country attain self-sufficiency in rice by 2015.

Read the press release at http://www.warda.org/warda/newsrel-senegalseeks-feb08.asp