Two project concept notes from Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) totaling US$4 million were being considered by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for inclusion in its grant pipeline for 2016, according to IFAD president Dr Kanayo F Nwanze.
They will help strengthen the rice sector and food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
“AfricaRice offers IFAD tremendous opportunities, because you have strong partnership in sub-Saharan Africa, with national agricultural research systems, academic institutions, farmers’ associations and non-governmental organizations that IFAD can benefit from,” said Dr Nwanze.
“We need to invest in explicit and tacit knowledge management approaches based on your experiences and lessons learnt.”
“This is an area which will benefit from a stronger partnership.”
Dr Nwanze underlined IFAD’s conviction that Africa holds the key to food security globally. The continent receives about 50% of IFAD’s total investments.
“But no development is possible without research and no peace without development,” he said
“This means there can be no peace without research, which helps combat rural hunger and poverty.”
At the occasion of the 2016 International Women’s Day celebration, AfricaRice Director General Dr Harold Roy-Macauley highlighted a women-friendly rice parboiling system, called GEM, recently developed by AfricaRice which is making a difference in the lives of more than a thousand women rice processors in Benin.
“IFAD’s experience shows that when you invest in a man, you invest in an individual, but when you invest in a rural woman, you invest in community,” said Dr Nwanze.
“And a cohesive community is a solid basis for stability in any country.”
He added that 58% of the participants of IFAD projects are women.
