Yaounde: Stakeholders acquiring skills on rice value chain dev’t to boost production.

The workshop ends today Thursday September 13, is holding at the head office of Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, IRAD, in Nkolbisson, Yaounde.

The workshop, which is within the framework of the Rice Compact of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation, has as participants 30 rice champions from 30 rice processing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, SMEs, from Lagdo, Yagoua, Ndop, Noun and Southern rice production zone of Cameroon. It is organised by Africa Rice Centre, AfricaRice, in partnership with IRAD.

Opening the workshop on Monday September 9 on behalf of the Director General of IRAD, the Deputy Director General, Dr Francis Ngome, underscoring the importance rice plays in the diet of Cameroonians population, said this is why rice was listed as a priority crop in the National Development Strategy 2020-2030, NDS 30.

Dr Ngome expressed gratitude to Africa Rice Centre for the initiative “that will go a long way to enhance the competitiveness of our locally produced rice and pave the way for export to other countries”.

“This is not the first time AfricaRice is organising training workshops in Cameroon to boost the productivity of the rice value chain. Between 2010 and 2024, several trainings have been organised on good farm practices, rice parboiling, market information and consumer preferences, production of rice value chain equipment, rice waste management and value addition through briquettes, mushrooms production, biochar, improved stoves...etc,” he disclosed. 

“Recently, AfricaRice, through TAAT Rice Compact, donated climate-resilient and high-yielding rice varieties, which are currently being multiplied for distribution to farmers in Cameroon. We are very confident that these improved rice varieties will enhance farm productivity and contribute to national policy of import substitution in the coming decade,” Dr Ngome added.

Increasing knowledge of key rice value chain actors

Talking to The Guardian Post, the TAAT Rice Compact Leader, Dr Sali Atanga Ndindeng, said the training workshop is to increase the knowledge of key value chain actors to be able to process and market high quality nutritious rice to the population. 

“We are giving them knowledge on how to identify rice varieties with high nutritional value. This can be based on the colour and processing method. So we are training them how to produce brown rice, which is very nutritive and how to store and market the brown rice while maintaining its high quality,” Dr Sali said.

He added that: “We are also training them on how to produce parboiled rice and market it, the varieties that are best for parboiling and after parboiling there is also low glycemic rice when parboiled. We are training them on all of these. We are also working on how to package all the information and present to the public so that the public can make informed decisions about the type of rice that they can consume that will help them in their nutritional status”.

“Another aspect is how to connect these different actors to have a value chain that is not fragmented, from seed producers like research institutions and private seed companies. How do they connect them to producers of the grains to make sure that there is a flow of high quality materials from the research institutions to the private seed companies, to the farmers and how to connect the farmers to good millers who can produce good quality rice and connect the millers to marketers and consumers,” he disclosed further.

Changing the dynamics

Dr Sali added that the TAAT Rice Compact is also trying to link all these champions in the rice value chain in Cameroon to change the dynamics in terms of production, commercialisation, marketing and consumption of rice.

He also noted that they are also training the stakeholders on herbicides and insecticides usage. 

“We did this through a course on environmental and health risk management. Through this, we taught them to be conscious of the dosage of these substances as well as their methods of application. We taught them different methods of application and how the products can act...,” he said. 

“I was shocked that most of them did not even know that insecticides and herbicides are toxic, even the containers they are put in. So we thought them how to dispose of these containers,” he added.

Dr Sali disclosed that: “We also told then to avoid using herbicides especially close to water sources. We explained that where there is drinking water, they should not use herbicides and insecticides, but rather manure and some of them told us they are now putting manure, cow dung, and droppings from poultry in their rice fields to improve their production”.

He went ahead to thank the African Development Bank, AfDB, for having funded the TAAT project, through the Africa Rice Centre. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3226 of Wednesday September 11, 2024