Lessons from the rice crisis

CGIAR

Lessons from the rice crisis: Policies for food security in Africa

Contents A strong tradition of policy research

1

New challenges: 2006–2007

5

The storm hits: The food price crisis

9

What of the future?

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AfricaRice member states and countries where AfricaRice has conducted policy work

Lessons from the rice crisis: Policies for food security in Africa

Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) 01 B.P. 2031 Cotonou, Benin Tel: (229) 21 35 01 88 Fax: (229) 21 35 05 56 Email: AfricaRice@cgiar.org www.AfricaRice.org

2011

Š Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) 2011 AfricaRice encourages fair use of this material. Proper citation is requested. The designations used in the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever by Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers and boundaries.

Citation Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice). 2011. Lessons from the rice crisis: Policies for food security in Africa.

Cotonou, Benin: ii+26 pp.

ISBN 978-92-9113-347-5 (print) 978-92-9113-348-2 (pdf)

Text: Guy Manners Printing: Pragati Offset Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, India.

Photo credits All photos are by AfricaRice staff members.

Policies for food security in Africa

A strong tradition of policy research For over 25 years from the 1980s, Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) and its member states were

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O J Nigeria rice sector study The project â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Nigerian rice economy in a competitive world: Constraints, opportunities and strategic choicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; developed a strategy to enhance the competitiveness of Nigerian rice through research and policy dialog. The project used stakeholder consultation and policy dialog to develop a shared vision of rice development issues and formulate the desired strategy. The project had two main objectives: (1) to increase the capacity of the Nigerian rice sector to compete with imported rice in terms of both quality and price;

recommendations under the headings of: Agriculture and rice trade policy, including price protection for local rice Improving quality management along the value chain

Enhancing policy dialog among stakeholders and with government, including establishment of a national rice stakeholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; forum.

Subsequently, Nigerian rice stakeholders established the Nigeria Rice Alliance and the federal government encouraged open debate of policy reform. Policies implemented included increasing import tariffs by 100% in 2003 and 150% in 2005, while maintaining government subsidies on fertilizers and other agro-inputs. In addition, US$ 400 million was released to boost agricultural production, including rice. Donors also took on board some of the recommendations in their projects.

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Visiting scholar Chantal Ingabire of the Rwanda Agriculture Research Institute (ISAR) (shown on the left with AfricaRice impact-assessment unitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Florent Kinkingninhoun and Perpetue KouamĂŠ) spent three months at AfricaRice headquarters learning to use data-analysis software and then analysing the results from a survey of constraints to rice production in Rwanda

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Impact assessment training workshop, Cameroon, June 2011 AfricaRice model for capacity-building AfricaRiceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s philosophy for capacity-building is intimately linked to its approach to research and development within the region, which is that AfricaRice will empower its NARS (and other) partners to carry out much of the research and all of the development work. Consequently, the model for capacity-building is a combination of the following: AfricaRice does not implement â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that is the NARSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; role AfricaRice provides backstopping and training The Center runs an annual training workshop for one to two weeks on policy analysis and impact assessment AfricaRice develops software tools to automate the processing and analysis of survey data collected by the NARS The Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Visiting Scientist scheme involves NARS scientists being invited to AfricaRice, which provides tools and training for their work; the scientists analyze their own data and write their own country reports (the time spent at AfricaRice is typically six weeks), while AfricaRice focuses on crosscountry comparative analyses and synthesis reports AfricaRice facilitates linkages between universities and NARS to give students â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;real worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; research experience.

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Lessons from the rice crisis

Key messages distilled Rice has become critical for food security and political stability throughout Africa, but especially in West Africa. For many decades, rice has had the fastest growing consumption rate among all staple crops, fueled in large part by huge growth in demand in urban centers. However, between 40 and 80% of rice consumed on the continent was imported. Despite being a major crop globally, only 7% of world production is traded internationally. Market signals were that the writing was on the wall for big changes in the major exporting countries in Asia. Consequently, African reliance on the international market is a very risky strategy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; should anything happen to the global market supply, there would likely be major political implications because of the numbers of (especially urban) people who rely on rice for their daily food.

Research has shown that the potential for rice production on the continent exceeds consumption levels and that domestic rice can be competitive. Even though aggregate yields are lower for Africa than for Asia, closer examination of yield by ecology and season suggests that rice yields in Africa are at least as high as those in Asia. Moreover, Africa has huge untapped natural resources in the form of land and water â&#x20AC;&#x201D; resources that are now scarce in other parts of the world, such as Europe, Asia and North America. Although local rice has for a long time suffered the stigma of poor quality, its taste is preferred by many consumers over imported varieties; when quality concerns are met, many consumers are prepared to pay a premium for local varieties.

Rice technologies â&#x20AC;&#x201D; varieties and crop management techniques â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are available in Africa. Although it is not the only player in the sector, AfricaRice has spent 40 years developing new, adapted varieties

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The Council of Ministers meetings and Director General Papa Seckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advocacy tour drew attention from local and international media

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The storm hits: The food price crisis Forewarned is forearmed 3 S I

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Turning crisis into opportunity At the Council of Ministers meeting in Abuja, September 2007, AfricaRice director general Papa Seck encouraged member states to turn the looming rice crisis into an opportunity to make the continent self [

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& ' Establish seed legislation and encourage the involvement of the private sector in seed supply and trade Reduce the import tax on small-scale farm and processing machinery that can increase rice farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

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AfricaRice reaction

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Rice statistics in Nigeria: Unparalleled collaboration Nigeria cultivates a large array of food and cash crops among which rice has emerged as the fastest growing sector and staple food, especially for the urban dwellers. Rice is cultivated in virtually all of Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s agro-ecological zones, from the mangrove and swampy ecologies of the River Niger delta in the coastal areas to the dry zones of the Sahel in the north. The land mass used for rice cultivation increased from 150,000 hectares in the 1960s to about 1.8 million hectares currently.2 AfricaRice was able to draw together the four key stakeholders with an interest in agricultural statistics in Nigeria â&#x20AC;&#x201D; National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER), and Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Ibadan. These four organizations formed the Rice Statistics & Information Network in 2008 and constituted the Technical Working Group for the statistics project. The Nigerian allocation of US$ 93 000 of the Japanese funds would not have been enough to cover all of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 36 states. However, NBS was so

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the country. The results of the survey were published in a booklet in 2010.2

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ERIS aiding national rice development policy in Benin Cyriaque Akakpo is head of the rice research program and deputy director of the Institut national de recherches agricoles du BĂŠnin (INRAB). As such, he is closely involved in Beninâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rice development work.

Like AfricaRice, INRAB sensed a looming crisis back in 2006. In that year, the Ministry of Agriculture signed an accord with GTZ to provide the country with assistance to boost national production to 600 000 tonnes of milled rice by 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; equivalent to 900 000 t of paddy. INRAB also arranged rice production activities as part of the African Rice Initiative (ARI). A fundamental problem at that time, however, was determining what steps needed to be taken to reach the goal.

In 2008, Akakpo took part in the workshop that launched ERI, and was trained in the ERIS decision-support tool. Now he had something to hand which would detail the progression required to achieve the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rice development goal.

The supply of 900 000 t of paddy rice by 2015 was entered into ERIS, but the prediction of resources required to reach the goal â&#x20AC;&#x201D; funds, seeds and fertilizers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was unrealistic. Consequently, INRAB settled for the lower target of 300 000 t of milled rice (450 000 t paddy). ERIS determined the requirements to increase [ [

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What of the future?

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Uniform-quality paddy is another advantage of using a mini combine-harvester â&#x20AC;&#x201D; this would enable processors and traders to aggregate paddy from numerous small-scale producers

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The case for an affordable locally adapted combine-harvester Harvesting and threshing of paddy are serious bottlenecks for rice farmers. Large combine-harvesters are ill [

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waiting to be harvested or threshed, during which time its quality deteriorates because of exposure to the elements. As a result, many rice farmers resort to manual harvesting and threshing operations, which are time-consuming and affect the quality of the paddy. Delayed removal of paddy from the farm impinges upon

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[ AfricaRice is introducing and adapting a small affordable combine-harvester in the Senegal River valley, to enable timely harvesting and threshing. This could provide the incentive for farmers to sell their paddy quickly and focus on producing a second crop (either rice or a horticultural crop such as tomato, potato or green bean).

The early removal of paddy from the farm would not only enable farmers to focus on their core farming business (i.e. crop production), but would also open up the prospect for greater aggregation of the marketable surplus of paddy. Fragmentation of available marketable volume of paddy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that is, the fact that producers act alone in processing and selling their surplus paddy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is a major disincentive to private-sector investment in the domestic rice value chain.

Field trial of the mini combine-harvester, Senegal River valley, Senegal

Policies for food security in Africa

What about large-scale mechanized rice farming? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rice production is done mostly by small-scale farmersâ&#x20AC;?, says Ali TourĂŠ, AfricaRice agricultural economist. â&#x20AC;&#x153;However, large-scale farming is now gaining importance with the involvement of private sector in areas where land is still available and in countries where some land acquisition arrangements exist and are Â&#x2020; Â&#x2021; Â&#x2C6; Â&#x2030; # Â&#x192; [

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be the capital investment issueâ&#x20AC;?, continues TourĂŠ. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Large-scale mechanized farming requires necessary investments along the value chain which small-scale farmers do not haveâ&#x20AC;?.

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are leasing land at minimal price to big foreign investors and other investors have seen the potential to make money out of producing food. Major foreign investors include China, India and Saudi Arabia, but wealthy and savvy nationals are also â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cashing inâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on what has become known as the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;land grabâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.6 In Ethiopia, for example, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land have been leased to huge commercial farm enterprises, which have claimed communitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; unused fallow land and displaced villages to make way for large-scale commercial, mechanized farming.

There are concerns that such farms may focus on production for export or of cash crops, where the land was formerly used for subsistence and local food crops. It is said that Africa has the resources, and that countries cannot feed their own populations on small-scale agriculture alone. There are â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;losersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in this â&#x20AC;&#x201D; people who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to leave their land, people who have their land taken away from them, people who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to give up their traditional way of life. It seems that they must pay the price for development,

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{ ~ enterprises are establishing new villages to accommodate workers and their families. If promises are kept, these villages will have the infrastructure to improve the wellbeing of their inhabitants â&#x20AC;&#x201D; such as schools, running water and clinics. There are fears, however, that some new land owners would rather import â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;experiencedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; labor than employ locals. Increased local unemployment could become a serious issue as other sectors are unlikely to be able to absorb the surplus labor force. â&#x20AC;&#x153;AfricaRice advocates all-encompassing and broad-based consultations with agricultural and rural stakeholders in Africaâ&#x20AC;?, says Diagne. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To minimize the political risk of land acquisition, countries ought to take a closer look at granting long-term lease (25 to 50 years) instead of full ownership of agricultural land

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to isolate themselves from the local communities. Rather they should provide employment for local people, investing in capacity-building where necessary. Since they are likely to construct mills of much

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A rice combine-harvester in use in Uganda. It can harvest 192 ha in a month

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Promoting investment in improved processing technologies Rice processing is dominated by small rice hullers, the majority of which produce an end-product that fails to meet to the quality requirements of urban consumers. Moreover, most operators of rice hullers only provide milling services â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they do not buy paddy and sell on milled rice. This practice contributes to the fragmentation of the market for milled local rice and discourages private-sector investment. The promotion

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process good-quality milled rice that matches the quality benchmark of imported rice. However, the objective is not to repeat past misguided policies of government-run large-scale industrial rice mills. Instead it is to promote modern processing technologies that are capable of producing high-quality rice, both medium-scale to deliver large quantities for urban centers and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;mini rice millsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for rural locations.

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tailored to the needs of all rice value-chain actors is paramount to stimulate further improvement in the supply and competitiveness of local rice. For instance, limited access to production credit to purchase [ ] [

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rice stocks. In many countries, little locally produced rice is available in urban areas. As paddy production expands, it will be necessary to promote year-round availability and marketing of local rice. Therefore, more investments need to be targeted toward the development of effective warehouse systems. For instance, successful experiences with warehouse-receipt systems7 could be scaled up and out. Incentives should be

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Kossi Messan Ewovor, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Republic of Togo and Papa Abdoulaye Seck at the Council of Ministers meeting in LomĂŠ, Togo, in 2009

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Regional integration One of the issues highlighted by Seck in his 2009 address to the Council of Ministers was the dwindling of global rice stocks. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is looking into the viability

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Without whomâ&#x20AC;Ś We gratefully acknowledge that most of the work reported here was carried out with funding from the European Union and with technical support of IFAD. The Japan government and the United States government also provided support following the rice crisis that helped to improve the availability of rice statistics in AfricaRice member countries.

AfricaRice would never be able to conduct any of its research-for-development activities without

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have generously contributed to its budget since 2000:

AfricaRice member countries African Development Bank (AfDB) Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR), France Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) Australia (ACIAR) Belgium (DGDC) Bioversity International Canada (CIDA) CGIAR Challenge Programs: Generation, HarvestPlus, Water & Food Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) Conservation, Food & Health Fund (CFH) Denmark ENI Congo S.A. Esso Chad European Commission (EC) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) France Gatsby Foundation Germany (BMZ/GIZ) International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) International Fund for Agricultural Research (IFAR) International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Japan (MOFA, MOF, MAFF, JICA) Michigan State University Netherlands Norway Republic of China (Taiwan) Rockefeller Foundation Sweden (SIDA) Syngenta Foundation Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACPâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;EU (CTA) United Kingdom (DFID) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Â&#x201D; ` ~ Â&#x201D;Â&#x2022; USA (USAID) Wageningen University World Bank

About this booklet The policy research and advocacy conducted by AfricaRice immediately before and

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that helped member countries and development partners identify and promote policies [ \

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renewed interest in the rice sector in general in Africa.

This booklet looks at AfricaRiceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in sounding the alarm bells for the then looming crisis, the countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; responses, and the ongoing work to ensure that African countries are not held to ransom by factors beyond their control in the international rice markets again.

About Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) The Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) is a leading pan-African research organization working to contribute to poverty alleviation and food security in Africa through research, development and partnership activities. It is one of the 15 members of the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR). It is also an autonomous intergovernmental research association of African member countries.

The Center was created in 1971 by 11 African countries. Today its membership comprises 24 countries, covering West, Central, East and North African regions, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, CĂ´te dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, GuineaBissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda. # Â? [

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based in Senegal, Nigeria, Tanzania and CĂ´te dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ivoire.

For more information, visit www.AfricaRice.org

Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) 01 B.P. 2031 Cotonou, Benin Tel: (229) 21 35 01 88 Fax: (229) 21 35 05 56 Email: AfricaRice@cgiar.org www.AfricaRice.org