Africana Plus
No61 June 2004.3
International year 2004
Cultivating the "Gold Nugget"
Rice is
an essential element of the national culture of many countries,
and some of them see the progress of their civilization as based
on their improving methods of growing rice. It is striking
to note that the growing of, and the feeding on, rice vary in
each human culture, and the different local traditions are parts
of the world's cultural patrimony. The International "Rice"
year is an invitation to the world community to fulfill the
internationally accepted objectives or the "Declaration 2000,"
aiming at the reduction of world poverty and the elimination of
hunger.
Close to three billion people share the culture, the traditions
and the still fully unexplored potential of rice. In little
known towns of South East Asia, people call their rice "Gold
Nuggets". The modern Japanese consider rice as the
center of their national culture. In West Africa, the
people living along the Senegal River welcome their visitors with
huge platters of rice. Wherever it is grown, in deltas and
valleys of Asia, and on the slopes of the Himalayas, or in the
arid lands of the Middle East, rice is a necessary part of daily
food, of religious festivals, of wedding customs, of paintings
and songs. Even in nations that do not traditionally feed
on rice, its culture has influenced customs, introduced new
cooking methods and provided farmers with a new source of
revenues.
When proclaiming
the year 2004 the international year of rice, the F.A.O General
Director, Mr. Jacques Diouf, said that rice was "the basic
food of more than half the world's population, but warns that its
production "meets with serious problems." Mr.
Diouf underlines the fact that the world's population continues
to grow, while the supply of land and water for its growth are
decreasing. "Whilst the revolution of the 70ies
has greatly decreased the risks of famine in some parts of the
world, its effects are getting smaller today," said he.
Rice
in the world
The F.A.O.'s statistics prove that from now on to the year 2030
the overall demand for rice in the world will be more than 38%
greater than the quantity grown between 1997 and 1999. The
demand for rice as food is the fastest growing demand in Africa,
and it has an important effect on human nutrition, on the world's
supply of food, and on the peace of the world. Efficient
rice cultivation systems will contribute in eradicating hunger in
the world, and in fulfilling the U.N.O.'s objectives for the
millennium. Close to one billion families in Asia, Africa
and America rely on the cultivation of rice; "It is the main
source of employment and life," said Mr. Diouf to the United
Nations delegates. About four fifths of all the rice in the
world come from small farmers and are eaten locally. The
cultivation of rice benefits many plants and animals that
constitute the diet of rural people as well as their revenues.
Thus, rice is in the front line of the fight against hunger in
the world."
This FAO campaign started with a proposal made last year by 44
United Nations countries warning that a crisis was imminent in
the culture of rice. Since the beginning of the nineties,
scientists have warned that rice production was decreasing, rice
fields produced less, but population has increased. The
rapid increase in rice production during the last years was one
of the first causes of the improvement in the world's food
security. Nevertheless, among the 840 million people who
are undernourished, more than 40% live in zones where rice
supplies food, employment and revenues. According to Mr.
Diouf, "It is now time for international organizations to
improve rice production, which will benefit men, women and
children, and particularly the poorest ones. Some world
initiatives have been launched to improve lasting farming methods
in many countries. I see the "International Rice Year"
as an important way of improving these initiatives."
African Rice
When, two years ago, draught hit Zaguiguia, in Western Ivory
Coast, only one variety of rice was grown there: the new rice for
Africa: the "Nerica". The next season all the
farmers wanted Nerica seeds, but there were not enough to go
around, as says Alberrtine Kpassa, a local farmer. At
Saioua, in the middle of the country, another agriculture expert,
Elise Digbeu Ori, prefers the Nerica rice because it grows faster
and brings quicker profits. "This is very important,"
says she, "because I have six children going to school."
In Guinea, the next country, where the first varieties of Nerica
have been introduced in 1997, Mamadi Douno has a field of rice at
Maferenya. "Since I started planting that rice, I no
longer buy rice at the market," said that father of ten
children to a local reporter. "With Nerica, I can feed
my family, pays the school fees for my children, and have food
all through the year. On a continent where it is sometimes
difficult to produce enough food, and where one third of the
population is undernourished, farmers of West and Central Africa
now have large enough harvests not only to feed their families,
but also to sell large quantities at the market.
Nerica Rice, which was developed by researchers from the
Association for the development of agriculture in West Africa, (ADRAO,)
an international research center for rice, was born from the
crossing of a very resistant old African kind of rice with a high
yield Asian kind. It blends the characteristics of both
varieties; proof against draughts and insects, and with a higher
yield even with scant irrigation or fertilizer, it has a higher
protein content than the other varieties of rice. It is in
fact a "Miracle Crop" as was said to "Afrique
Relance" by the General Director of ADRAO, Mr Kanayo Mwanze,
at the third Tokio International Conference on African
development on September 29 to October first, in which Africa
played an important role.
The
accelerating procedure: nepad
In West Africa where rice is still the basic food, the local
production increase has had an enormous impact. To meet
consumers' demand, that region must import every year about 3.5
million tons of rice a year, which cost nearly one billion
dollars. Increasing local production would allow Africa to
save much foreign money. This year, Guinea alone could save
about 13 million dollars. But, as Mr Nwanze said during a
recent trip to Kenya, the adoption of Nerica alone on a large
scale will not increase rice production and decrease imports.
"Families will also have more to eat and farmers more money.
This would then contribute to more food security and to a
decrease in poverty.
Members of the new Coalition for the Development of Africa (NEPAD),
an ambitious development program adopted in 2001 by the leaders
of the continent, have become aware of the power that Nerica
means. The steering Committee of NEPAD see Nerica as one of
the best efforts of the Continent, and have approved its aim of
developing the growing of that rice in West and Central Africa,
and of introducing it in East and South Africa, for the purpose
of increasing its farm products and its food supply. "The
NERICA", says Professor Richard Mkandawire, agricultural
counsellor for NEPAD, "can help speed up the elimination of
hunger and famine on the African Continent.
Nowhere on earth is the struggle for food as desperate than in
West Africa where live 240 million people, that is 1 in 3 or the
population of the content. More than half of them manage to
survive on less than one American dollar a day. "Keep
in mind that food equals rice for many West Africans" said
Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, Director General of the Association for the
growing of rice in West Africa, (ADRAO.) based in Ivory Coast.
"It is ironical to realize that rice was seen as luxury food
twenty years ago. "Today it is the staple food."
Dr Nwanze adds, "Today, rice supplies more calories and
protein than any other cereal in the wetlands of West Africa, and
as many as all the root plants." The demand for rice
increases faster in that region than anywhere else in the world.
In thirty years imports of rice have multiplied eight times to
reach 3 million tons a year, at the cost of close to one billion
American dollars. About 40% of the 4.1 million acres of the
rice produced in West Africa are grown in dry fields, like wheat
or maize. The use of fertilizer and pesticides is hardly
known, and the harvest is only around one metric ton per hectare.
Rice is a food, but
much more than a simple food. It mirrors society, culture,
politics, business, and the beauty of landscapes, nations living
in communities. In one word, rice is Life.
This fight against hunger that UNO officials talk about, reminds
us of the Chinese story: "A mandarin was leaving one
day for the next world. He first went to hell. He saw
lots of people sitting at tables before a rice bowl, but all were
starving because their chopsticks were too long, fully two
meters, and they could not feed with them. Then he went up
to heaven, and there too he saw crowds sitting in front of rice
bowls, and all were happy and in good health, as with their long
chopsticks they were feeding the people in front of them."
Taking part in the "International Rice Year of 2004"
will enable us all to join in the struggle against hunger and
poverty, to help save the environment, and to insure a better
future to millions of women, children and men.
Michel Fortin, W.F.