Improving and Scaling up the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in West Africa
January 2014 – December 2016

Overview

‘Improving and Scaling up the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in West Africa’ is multi-year first phase (Jan 2014 – Jun 2016) of a regional World Bank-financed project to increase rice productivity and competitiveness throughout a 13-country Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) project area: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The project is designed to increase rice yields by 30% in targeted areas in each of the participating countries by strengthening the human and institutional capacities, by focusing on innovation and development of SRI practices and technologies that are adapted to the local environment, and by facilitating knowledge exchange and meeting the demand for knowledge among the stakeholders associated with the rice value chain. (For more information on what SRI is, see the About SRI page.)

The project is part of the larger West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program, commonly known as the WAAPP. With funding from the World Bank, the WAAPP is a multi-year, 13-country regional effort to boost agricultural productivity across a series of key focal crops (dryland cereals, rice, roots and tubers, fruits and vegetables, fisheries, bananas and plantains, maize, and livestock) through the development, dissemination and use of improved agricultural technologies. In support of the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) and the Africa Action Plan (AAP), the WAAPP platform is also meant to foster regional integration, and strengthen linkages between research systems, extension and advisory services, farmers and agribusinesses. The West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) manages the WAAPP on a regional level, with national coordination administered by officially-designated affiliate organizations in each country. More information on the WAAPP is available at: www.waapp-ppaao.org/index.php/en

The development and extension of technologies and methodologies for increasing the productivity for each crop or set of crops in the WAAPP is delegated to individual focal institutions across the region, referred to as National Centers of Specialization (NCS/CNS), which are housed in national agricultural research institutes. The Government of Mali’s Institut d’Économie Rurale (IER – www.ier.gouv.ml) is the designated National Center of Specialization in Rice (CNS-Riz), and is responsible for the majority of the rice components of the WAAPP.

As part of their mandate to improve rice productivity across the region, CNS-Riz has teamed up with Cornell University’s System of Rice Intensification International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice – www.sririce.org), based in Ithaca, New York (USA), to implement the regional project ‘Improving and Scaling up the System of Rice Intensification in West Africa.’

The 13 national WAAPP coordination offices are responsible for funding and monitoring of the national SRI programs. Each country has designated a National Facilitator, responsible for technical coordination of all SRI activities in the country beyond the WAAPP funding. Another important feature is the role of the SRI Champions – including farmers, technicians, and others – which have a special status in this project. Depending on their dynamic and activities, they can receive additional support, be involved in capacity strengthening, receive specific knowledge product,s or actively participate in the national SRI platforms. The WAAPP provides a novel and practical approach for sharing innovations, resources, knowledge and tools across both sectoral and geopolitical boundaries.

Regional Coordination

Coordinator – Dr. Gaoussou Traoré
Technical and Strategic Team – Dr. Erika Styger, Devon Jenkins

Coordinating Organization – National Center of Specialization on Rice (CNS-Riz), based at the Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER), in Bamako, Mali

Technical and Strategic Partner – The SRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice), based at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

Contact us to get more information on this project, or to get involved!

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