At sub-regional seminar: Japanese agency drills stakeholders to boost quality rice production.

This is in a four-day training ongoing in Yaounde. It is organised by the technical cooperation project known as Project for the Development of Irrigated and Rainfed Rice Cultivation by Reinforcing the Value Chain, PRODERIP-RCV. 

This project is put in place through the collaboration of Japan International Cooperation Agency, JICA, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, MINADER, as a part of the National Rice Development Strategy in Cameroon.

During the sub-regional seminar, which opened yesterday, the participants are being trained on modules on rice variety and seeds, harvest and post-harvest processing, and national rice development strategies amongst others. 

Opening the seminar on behalf of Minister Gabriel Mbairobe, the Inspector General of Agricultural Development at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developnent, Tobie Ondoa Manga, lauded the support of the Japanese government in helping to maximise Cameroon rice production potentials through development of rice production, processing and commercialisation.  
Noting that the PRODERIP-RCV project is already in phase three, the Inspector General explained that the gathering will enable them share with associates from other African countries, not only the results obtained during the previous phases but also good practices of PRODERIP-RCV to develop and increase their rice production.

“PRODERIP is a structural project to help in agricultural good practices in various rice production basins,” he added. According to the PRODERIP-RCV National Coordinator, Folefack Tsopkeng Emile, the regional gathering initially planned, had been delayed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“We have participants from other countries so that we can share some good practices on rice cultivation,” the National Coordinator stated, adding that “in Africa we consume a lot of rice whereas we don’t produce enough despite the huge potentials”. 

“What we are going to share here for the next three days, they can copy and implement in their own countries. The stakes are not just to produce rice but to produce quality rice, sell better to the population and make it competitive with rice from elsewhere,” Folefack further underscored. 

On her part, the Deputy Resident Representative of JICA, Hanai Akane, explained that with the support of the Japanese government, they are committed to share Japan’s technical knowhow in rice production to Cameroon and the rest of other African countries.  

“We, JICA, supported by the Japanese government, have the project to boost the rice production in Africa which is why this training englobes participants from other countries,” she indicated. She added that “JICA is supporting to develop their national strategy, production and technique aspects as well as the commercialisation of the rice”. 

The official ceremony to launch the sub-regional workshop was also attended by the Japanese Ambassador to Cameroon. It is worth noting that from 2011 to 2016, PRODERIP-RCV worked with farmers in the highland rice regions and succeeded in raising the volume of the harvest and the number of the rice farmers in those regions. 

The cooperation project will start a new phase of the project to further augment the production volume and number of farmers, including the irrigated rice farming region of the North West and to refine the quality of post-harvest rice as well as to boost its volume of domestic rice sales.