Saint-Louis, 27 July 2026 AfricaRice brought together trainers from 13 West African countries in Saint-Louis to strengthen their skills in good agronomic rice practices.
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They were women and men who came from thirteen (13) countries of the West African sub-region, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. There were 29 participants taking part in the Training of Trainers workshop, organized at AfricaRice's Regional Agricultural Training Center in Saint-Louis, Senegal, from 27 to 29 July 2026. This workshop was organized under the REWARD-AfricaRice project (Regional West Africa Resilient Rice Value Chains Development).
Rice lies at the heart of food security in West Africa. Yet the sector continues to face major challenges: average yields remain stagnant at between 2.2 and 2.5 tonnes per hectare, post-harvest losses can reach 42 percent, and local production covers only about 60 percent of regional demand. These constraints are compounded by the growing effects of climate change, which further weaken production systems and farmers' livelihoods. To address these challenges, the REWARD-AfricaRice project, funded by the African Development Fund and implemented by AfricaRice in fourteen countries of the West African sub-region, aims to strengthen the resilience of rice production systems, improve the performance of rice processing, and consolidate value chain actors' access to markets.
It was with this in mind that the research center organized this Training of Trainers workshop, to equip extension agents, researchers from national institutes, and implementing partners with the skills needed to, in turn, conduct training on good rice-growing practices in their respective countries. Twenty-nine (29) participants attentively followed the presentations and shared their experiences and hands-on demonstrations, focused on key themes such as good agronomic practices adapted to each country's conditions (from soil preparation to harvest operations, including variety selection, the use of quality seed, and crop establishment), fertilization, water and weed management, integrated pest management, and post-harvest operations, before concluding the training with a practical phase.
For Dr Ali Ibrahim, Regional Representative of AfricaRice's Regional Station for the Sahel, this Training of Trainers workshop matters because it sufficiently equipped participants with theoretical and practical knowledge so that they, in turn, can spread rice crop management techniques and technologies, enabling farmers to effectively improve their yields through the efficient use of available resources, as well as their incomes, in a sustainable way. This project also allowed AfricaRice to fulfill one of its missions, which is to strengthen the capacities of its member countries through the dissemination of technologies that sustainably improve rice productivity.
Beyond capacity building, this regional workshop reflects the REWARD-AfricaRice project's ambition to promote stronger technical coordination among its member implementing countries. While each country moves at its own pace, all now draw on a shared framework of good practices and technical standards developed by AfricaRice, with the support of the African Development Fund, to sustainably improve the performance of the rice sector across the region.
For Dr Valentin S. Edgar Traoré, Coordinator of the REWARD-AfricaRice project, this training also provides a valuable space for sharing experiences among countries pursuing a shared ambition: strengthening their rice sovereignty. "Our countries face similar challenges, including low productivity, the effects of climate change, and post-harvest losses. By encouraging exchange among stakeholders and harmonizing approaches, we are creating the conditions for a more effective regional response," he noted. Participants returned to their countries with updated knowledge and new theoretical and practical skills in rice cultivation, tasked with sharing them with farmers, supported by REWARD-AfricaRice, which intends to follow up by staying in permanent contact with them and remaining attentive to their needs in carrying out activities at the regional level.
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About REWARD
The REWARD-AfricaRice project (Regional West Africa Resilient Rice Value Chains Development Program) is a regional initiative funded by the African Development Fund and implemented by AfricaRice in fourteen West African countries. It aims to strengthen the resilience, productivity, and competitiveness of rice value chains in order to sustainably reduce the region's dependence on rice imports. Through strengthening the capacities of stakeholders, disseminating technologies and good practices, improving the quality of local rice, reducing post-harvest losses, and developing production systems that are more resilient to climate change, the project helps improve food security, farmers' incomes, and West Africa's rice sovereignty.
About AfricaRice
The Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) is a pan-African center of excellence for rice research, development, and capacity building. It is one of the 15 international agricultural research centers of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. AfricaRice is also an intergovernmental association of 28 African member countries.
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