AfricaRice joins IRAD to train trainers on methods to transform rice into pastry products.

A one-week training of trainers' workshop to impart skills on the processing of rice into products like bread, cake, beverages and other pastries, started on Wednesday, July 28 at the Norbert Kenné Memorial Peace House, situated in the Biyem-Assi Lac neighbourhood in Yaounde.

The workshop is organised by the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, IRAD, under the framework of the project code-named "Ameliorating the Competitiveness of Rice in Central Africa", with the technical and financial assistance of the Africa Rice Center, AfriRice, and the Common Fund for Commodities, CFC.

"We are training trainers who will train others, especially women, to use rice to produce pastry products," said Dr. Afiavi R. Agboh-Noameshie, the regional coordinator of the project. She explained that the workshop provides a real opportunity for men and women, who will later be trained in the rural areas by the trainers, to make more income from the production and marketing of the products that they will learn to produce from rice.

Sitting in for the Director General of IRAD, Dr. Woin Noe, the Deputy Director General of IRAD, stated that rice plays an important role in the achievement of food security in many African countries with low income and food shortages. Demand for rice, he said, was increasing faster than production that most African countries were resorting to massive importations. He disclosed that during the last ten years, importations of rice in Central Africa had increased from 328,000 tonnes to 673,000 tonnes. The "Ameliorating the Competitiveness of Rice in Central Africa" project, he said, will improve on the productivity and quality of rice produced locally using the rich "Nerica" rice variety. He affirmed that the training workshop would enable men and women to diversify the use of rice. "I urge you to do your best so that this training brings in an effective and appreciable way, its contribution to the poverty alleviation process, which remains a constant preoccupation of His Excellency Paul Biya, President of the Republic," he said.

Since Wednesday, the main resource person, Mrs. Akintayo Modesta, will share her rice processing skills to the trainers. The pastries and beverages produced will be exhibited on Monday, August 2, 2010 during the closing ceremony of the workshop.

The project to ameliorate the competitiveness of rice in Central Africa is now executed in Cameroon, Chad and the Republic of Central Africa, because these countries possess agro-ecological conditions that are favourable to rice production.