Junichiro Koizumi
Prime Minister of Japan

“We thank WARDA for the development of NERICA rice”.

Olusegun Obasanjo
President of Nigeria

“As a start, together with Japan we should give priority to the further expansion of the successful New Rice for Africa Initiative (NERICA) to other parts of the continent in urgent need.”

Thabo Mbeki
President of Republic of South Africa

“A major outcome of Asia-Africa cooperation has been the development of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA), which has produced, through joint research, a high-yield variety of rice that has the potential to address the problems of food insecurity in a number of West African countries”. 

Ibrahim Gambari
Under-Secretary General and Special Adviser on Africa,
The United Nations

« Ce partage des compétences entre l’Asie et l’Afrique a déjà remporté un franc succès dans l’UEMOA, avec la création d’une nouvelle variété de riz baptisé NERICA. En conjuguant les avantages comparatifs des deux continents, les scientifiques ont crée une graine de riz qui marie la productivité asiatique à la diversité génétique africaine. Cette nouvelle variété de riz a permis de multiplier par deux la récolte dans la moitié des pays de l’UEMOA »

Moussa Touré
Ancien Président de la Commission UEMOA

“The launch of African Rice Initiative is estimated to result in 210,000 hectares of New Rice for Africa, NERICA, to be cultivated on land in West and Central Africa in 2006, which will yield 750,000 tons, representing $ 88 million dollars saved on rice imports.”.

Mark Malloch Brown
Administrator, United Nations Development Programme

“The NERICA rice story led by Japan and WARDA and supported by many including IFAD is a good example. There are many other good examples such as the cassava revolution in Nigeria.”

“NERICA is an excellent example of how a variety of partners – African governments, farmers, international agencies and donors – can work together on actions with potential for quick development impact. NERICA development was led by Japan, which funded research at WARDA. WARDA contributed its scientific expertise. IFAD also provided grants to support WARDA’s research. This new rice for Africa was introduced by WARDA in Ghana, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire in the 90s, with tremendous success. By 1999, 20,000 farmers in Guinea were farming NERICA. In these areas, rice yields doubled, leading to reduced hunger, better nutrition and increased income. These improvements, in turn, spun off additional benefits such as new jobs in processing and reduced reliance on imported rice.”

Lennart Båge
President of International Fund for 
Agricultural Development (IFAD)

The participants concurred on the importance of technical assistance to raise productivity (e.g., facilitating development and the dissemination of NERICA, which is endowed with advantages of both Asian and African rice), in augmenting food self-sufficiency in Africa, as well as in cutting the vicious cycle of inadequate agricultural production and famine. Similar efforts to that which yielded NERICA should also be applied to other crops, such as maize, cassava, millets, and sorghums.

Yoshiro Mori
Former Prime Minister of Japan, Chair of TICAD III

NERICA has been identified in the context of CAADP's action plan as one of Africa's "best practices" worth up scaling. The NEPAD Head of State and Government Steering Committee has endorsed the expansion of the NERICA in West and Central Africa and transfer of these high yielding varieties of rice to Southern and East Africa. Indeed NERICA has been hailed as a miracle crop for Africa because of its adaptability, as well as its higher yielding potential. NEPAD is therefore keen to explore further how NERICA can be integrated into the existing varietal portfolio of African farmers with complementary technologies, sound natural resource management practices and improved rice marketing and distribution systems.

Richard Mkandawire
Advisor, Agriculture, The New Partnership for Africa’s Development