Asian rice producers offer support to double African riceAsian rice producers offer support to double African rice output by 2018+by 2018+

TOKYO, June 4 Kyodo -
Five Southeast Asian rice-producing countries as well as Egypt and Brazil
offered their support Thursday for sub-Saharan Africa to achieve a goal of
doubling annual rice output in the area by 2018 from the current level of about
14 million tons, officials of Japan's aid agency said.
Major rice producers Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam
highlighted their experience of developing the staple food at a Tokyo meeting
of an international network, which was set up last year by Japanese and
international agencies to help African nations realize the target.
About 140 people, including representatives of 14 African nations, took part in
the two-day gathering of the network, known as the ''Coalition for African Rice
Development.'' The Japan International Cooperation Agency spearheaded the
creation of the coalition.
A JICA official said the conference provided a ''matchmaking'' opportunity for
African nations and their supporters to promote cooperation.
Thailand and Indonesia have already dispatched personnel to aid rice production
in Sudan and Madagascar, respectively, and Vietnam is interested in assisting
rice projects in Mozambique, he said.
African countries generally welcomed the offer by the Asian rice producers, but
some said Asian experience cannot directly be applied to Africa due to
differences in conditions, the official said.
During the meeting, 12 African countries presented their national rice
development strategies. The most ambitious plan among them was to raise rice
output ninefold by 2018, according to the official.
Nine other African nations will likely start compiling their strategies around
the year-end, he said.
At the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama in May
last year, Japan called for aiming to double African rice production in a
decade. The multi-stakeholder coalition was launched on the sidelines of the
TICAD meeting.
Although demand for rice in sub-Saharan Africa has been sharply growing, nearly
half the rice consumed there is imported because domestically produced rice is
generally of low quality and lacks price competitiveness compared with imports
from Asian countries, including Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan, the official
said.
==Kyodo
2009-06-04 22:33:42