AfricaRice DG, MINEPAT boss discuss boosting rice production in Cameroon.

Dr Baboucarr Manneh, who was visiting Cameroon, was accompanied to the audience by the Deputy Director General of Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, IRAD, Dr Francis Ngome; Director General of Mission d’Études pour l’Aménagement et le Développement de la Région du Nord, MEADEN, Abdoulaye Serno, and other officials of AfricaRice.

During the audience, Dr Baboucarr Manneh and Minister Ousmane Mey discussed how AfricaRice and Cameroon can continue partnership for the transformation of the rice value chain for the attainment of rice self-sufficiency in the country.

Speaking to the press after the audience, Dr Baboucarr Manneh said they identified areas for consideration in the advancement of the collaboration between AfricaRice and Cameroon.

“We emphasised that it's very important to build upon good results… good varieties that were identified by the technicians of the VIVA Benue project. Those good varieties, we need to multiply the seeds to make sure they get to the farmers. So, that's why scaling of technologies need to be taken into consideration,” he said.

He added that: “We also find the lands that were developed already, there's need also to think about the levelling, particularly with laser levelling. This is because when you develop irrigated land, if it is not well levelled, you find they have some areas where there will be flooding and some areas with some lack of water. We think that should be a priority in the next phase to make sure that we try to integrate land levelling into the programme, so the farmers will benefit more from this big and very impressive investment in the northern part of Cameroon”.

Dr Manneh and Minister Ousmane Mey also discussed rice transformation and processing.

“With the VIVA Benue project, they have already started training technicians to start fabricating what we call the parboiling equipment here in Cameroon. We have a system called the GEM parboiling system, which is very efficient and helps the women parboilers to eliminate the use of firewood and also smoke in the parboiling system,” he divulged. 

He said the 12 artisans have been trained to build improved parboiling systems, disclosing that the training was led by a technician who was trained by AfricaRice since 2013. 

“…right now, he's able to develop these improved parboiling systems all across Cameroon…these 12 new technicians can now make more parboiling systems to provide high-quality parboiled rice on the Cameroonian market, which will also improve nutrition,” Dr Manneh said.

He noted that so far what has been achieved with AfricaRice investments in the north of the country is commendable, applauding the government “for all the efforts that have been made and also all the partners who are involved in the good progress”.

Dr Manneh said AfricaRice looks forward to expanding its partnership in Cameroon so that, “very shortly we will start eating what we produce and producing what we eat”. 

The Africa Rice Centre, AfricaRice, is a pan-African Centre of Excellence for rice research, development and capacity building. It contributes to reducing poverty, achieving food and nutrition security and improving livelihoods of farmers and other rice value-chain actors in Africa by increasing the productivity and profitability of rice-based agri-food systems, while ensuring the sustainability of natural resources.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3911 of Wednesday September 16, 2026