Patrick Luganda
10 March 2004
Kampala — THIS is an important year in agriculture. It is the International Year of Rice (IYR). An international conference has just ended in Rome at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters on the intensification of rice production in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner, which is essential for food security mainly in Asia and Africa.
The IYR will seek to meet future demands, new methodologies and production technologies that are necessary to ease pressure on land and water resources that are under threat. The strategy of the Rice Year is to use the year as a catalyst for country-driven programmes the world over.
In the run-up to the International Year, a number of African countries have introduced high yielding rice developed in West Africa. It is spreading like a bush fire and on arrival in Uganda a few years back, it was embraced by hundreds of farmers.
The high yielding NERICA variety of rice dubbed the African 'miracle' rice is being widely introduced in several African countries to combat hunger and rural poverty. Last week, President Yoweri Museveni officially launched the growing of the wonder variety in Wakiso district at Vice President Gilbert Bukenya's farm.
NERICA rice was originally developed by scientists of the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA). This is an intergovernmental rice research centre based in Nigeria.
The rice variety is a cross between a hardy ancient African rice variety and a high yielding Asian variety.
"It combines features of resistance to drought and pests and higher yields even with little irrigation or fertiliser yet has more protein than most rice varieties," says a WARDA document.
"It is a miracle crop," WARDA director general, Kanayo Nwanze was quoted by African Recovery at the Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development.
NERICA is unlike the traditional African rice varieties that have been widely grown in many parts of the continent. While each panicle (branch cluster) of the African rice has about 100 grains, the superior Asian variety has 250 grains per cluster. But the wonder of NERICA is that it has 400 grains, beating both varieties flat out.
This means that even without heavy input, NERICA can yield 1.5 tonnes to 2.5 tonnes per hectare compared with one tonne for traditional varieties.
A modest application of fertiliser can increase yields to average at 3.5 tonnes per hectare.
"Each grain of NERICA rice has more protein than either of the parents. It also matures considerably faster taking as short as 90-100 days to harvesting. Asian upland varieties take 120-140 days and the African swamp varieties take up to 180 days," says George Anyang, a rice expert formerly working with WARDA but now in Uganda.
The beauty of this particular type of rice is that it does so well that farmers will earn a lot by growing it. Because of the shorter time spent growing it, farmers have more time to grow other crops and they will earn more from the increased yields.
However the fundamental advantage of this upland rice variety is that farmers do not spend so much time in unhealthy damp conditions as they do in growing paddy rice.
"I do not like the other rice in water because it spoils our swamps and rivers. And those who work on it get bilharzia and malaria because they are always in water," said Museveni at the launch.
Museveni said the Government will fully support the upland rice scheme project which is an anti-poverty initiative of the Vice President.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2004 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
