TAAT Rice Compact: Rice seeds stakeholders building capacity to boost quality, productivity.

The workshop, which began yesterday and will end on Thursday June 6, is within the framework of the Rice Compact of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation, TAAT, project.

It has as objective to strengthen the capacity of technicians of the National Seed Service, IRAD, extension agents of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and staff/technicians of seed businesses of rice value chains to produce and market rice seeds of desired quality, to improve rice productivity and competitiveness. 

This will thereby contribute to food and nutrition security and reduction of rice import bill.

Opening the workshop, the Deputy Director General of IRAD, Dr Francis Ngome, on behalf of the Director General, Dr Noe Woin, said rice production is a key activity in Cameroon's National Development Strategy for the period 2020 to 2030, SND30, especially as consumption of these commodities far exceeds the quantity the country produces. 

“To put it plainly, our country is a net importer of rice. This is why the African Development Bank, AfDB, has decided, through the TAAT programme, to work with AfricaRice to help us improve rice production,” he said.

He added that: “In November 2023, the Government of Cameroon, through IRAD, signed an agreement with AfricaRice (the African Rice Centre) to carry out certain activities that will help boost rice production in Cameroon”.

“Our focus over the next three days will be on rice seed production, which I have no doubt is a task with which you are already familiar. However, the experts from AfricaRice and their partners will be presenting us with new developments in the production of seeds for these commodities that are so dear to our communities,” Dr Ngome told participants.

He noted that the knowledge gained will undoubtedly contribute to improving the seeds of rice grown in Cameroon in the very near future.

Enhancing easy access to quality seeds

Talking to The Guardian Post, Dr Sali Atanga Ndindeng, TAAT Rice Compact Leader and Programme Leader of Rice Sector Development at AfricaRice, said the workshop will build the capacities of seed value chain actors to produce, process, store and market quality rice seeds, and different categories of rice seeds; that is breeder seeds, foundation seeds and certified seeds.

“IRAD is responsible for the production of foundation and breeder seeds, while individuals in the private sector can be contracted to produce certified seeds. This workshop is to build the capacities of the different categories of actors to be able to perform this action so that we can have easy access to quality seeds which is primordial to improve rice production in Cameroon,” Dr Salli said.

He added that: “Quality seeds give quality yield in terms of quantity and quality. If you have bad rice seeds, your yield will be low and the quality of rice will be poor. This affects farmers, consumers and processors, and this makes the value chain ineffective, and cannot stimulate investments into the value chain”.

“So, what we are doing here is to bring quality seeds from AfricaRice, through the TAAT programme, to make these seeds available to farmers. Through this, we expect to boost and increase yields that are currently over one ton per hectare, to about four tons per hectare. This will have a significant impact in the economy and the livelihoods of farmers,” he said.

Quizzed on the possibility of the country one day ending rice imports, Dr Salli said: “If we have quality seeds, through individuals who have been trained to produce quality seeds, and we attack other sectors; this is the beginning of a chain of events that will happen. We starting with seeds but won’t end here. We will go on to train farmers on how to produce quality paddy, millers on how to produce milled rice, either white rice or parboiled rice”.

“We have already started the programme to bring in improved parboiling and milling systems in the different rice sector development hubs in Ndop, in the Tonga area, the Mbam area and in the North, in the Lagdo area. These systems are already going in place. It’s a whole chain of mechanisms that we are bringing into Cameroon,” he disclosed. 

This story first published in The Guardian Post issue No3131 of Tuesday June 04, 2024