Germany Launches Ghana Rice Initiative Project

The German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and stakeholders have launched the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) project in Ghana / L’Allemagne lance le projet d’initiative pour le riz au Ghana
The initiative targeted at male and female smallholder rice farmers is to significantly improve the livelihood of rice farmers in selected countries in the sub-region by increasing the competitiveness of domestic rice supply to meet increasing regional demand. 

Mr Emmanuel Toureille, Country Director, TechnoServe Ghana said the project is being implemented Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Tanzania with the aim of reaching 120,000 African rice producers.

He said rice was the fastest growing food source in Africa in recent years and as such had far outstrip the sub-regions population growth, hence the initiative.

Mr Toureille said the project would see to the increase in productivity and quality of paddy rice, increase the efficiency of local rice sourcing, processing and marketing and improve the enabling environment at the national and regional levels.

He said the ambitious adventure TechnoServe was embarking on would go along with the Gates Foundation, the German Government, German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the Kufuor Foundation to develop a competitive rice industry in Ghana.