TRANSFORMATION OF THE GAMBIAN RICE SUBSECTOR THROUGH A TARGETBASED PRODUCTION SYSTEM

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• TRANSFORMATION OF THE GAMBIAN RICE SUB-SECTOR
  THROUGH A TARGET-BASED PRODUCTION SYSTEM
  
• By
• Suruwa B. Wawa Jaiteh
• Permanent Secretary
• Department of State for Agriculture (DOSA)
• Republic of The Gambia

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Presentation outline

• Rationale
• Expression of gratitude
• Rice as a development tool
• Introduction
• Gambia Rice consumption and production
• Operation feed yourself
• Rice Gambian food economy

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Presentation Outline Continues

• Increase rice production
• Rice promotion programme
• Objectives
• Organization/Components
• Producer cooperatives
• Strategic context

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Rationale

• Expression of gratitude
• Let me start by expressing my heartfelt thanks to
  the Africa Rice Center, the West Africa Rice
  Development Association (WARDA),
  
• Economic Community of West African States
  (ECOWAS) and the Union Economic et Monetaire
  Ouest Africaine (UEMOA) for inviting me to take
  part in this very important and unique workshop
  on Policies and Strategies for Promoting Rice
  Production and Food Security in Sub-Saharan
  Africa (SSA),
• To you members of the audience for giving up your
  time to come and attend this innovative workshop.

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Rationale Continues

• For the invitation and for their part in the
  organization of this workshop Director General
  Kanayo Mwanza of WARDA and Bruce-Oliver also of
  WARDA. I hope their expectations are fulfilled at
  least in some small measure.
• Rice as a development tool
• Rice a development tool and vehicle that calls
  for study, research-development and promotion has
  been taken for granted in most Sub-Saharan
  African countries, especially in the WARDA member
  countries.
• Much of WARDAs research and development output
  has not been adequately taken advantage of in
  most of the member countries.

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Rice as a development tool Continues

• Evident in the increasing importation of rice
  against very low domestic productions.
  
• October 1984, FAO, WARDA and Government of Sierra
  Leone sponsored a workshop on Swamp Rice
  Development for Anglophone West Africa.
  
• workshop hinged upon and revolved around the
  understanding of rice as a development crop,
  transfer of its production technology and the
  building up of production capabilities, which
  are, essentially, the core of my presentation
  today.

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Rice as a development tool Continues

• Workshop was very significant as it symbolised
  the growing importance which more and more
  thinking people in Sub-Saharan Africa are
  attaching to understanding the agronomy and
  production of rice,
• And the way in which its production technology
  can be used as an instrument of development, a
  tool for the building of more autonomous
  societies better able to provide for the basic
  food, social and material needs of their members,
  considering that the economy of most countries in
  the region is agrarian and rice based.
• I wanted to begin on this note because it is a
  theme that envelopes this workshop, a theme that
  has relevance to WARDA and to Africa as a whole
  and to this Policy Workshop in particular.

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Rice as a development tool Continues

• Many private agencies, foundations, national and
  several international agencies have sponsored
  action programmes to alleviate poverty and food
  insecurity through rice production.
• Many of these have had tangible results already.
  
  
• Some have been so successful that they have been
  credited, and I think deservedly, with starting a
  campaign against food insecurity through rice
  production revolution.
• What was actually missing in this production
  revolution, was our common virus, sustainability.
  I hope one of the rigid guidelines of this
  workshop will be, to become masters and not
  victims of this virus?

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Rice as a development tool Continues

• We are here primarily to review, analyze, and
  assess the work which has been done in the past
  to help us initiate an integrated attack on the
  problems of providing plenty of rice for the rice
  eaters of the region.
• This is a top priority assignment since rice
  feeds more of the people of region than any other
  crop.
  
• Now, after having paid my respect to the
  honourable rice, I shall talk about the
  socio-economy of our small Gambian and its
  designed national strategy for the promotion of
  increased rice production as a conduit to the
  generation of sustainable employment and food
  security.

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Introduction

• Gambia Rice consumption production
• A small coastal country in the West African
  Semi-Arid Tropics, the Gambia has the highest per
  capita rice consumption (107 kgs) among the
  Sahelian countries. The third highest per capita
  consumption in West Africa
• About 66 of household income spent on food and
  about 30.9 of food expenditure is on cereals and
  cereal products, of which 82.3 is on rice.
  
• Technical and physical constraints such as
  unsustainable lift-pump irrigation system and
  drought prone rainfed-production system, along
  side inadequate on-farm practices like the
  inability of farmers to double crop, seriously
  limit efforts to increased yield,

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Rice consumption productionContinues

• Increased production and productivity
  stabilisation requisites for yield, production
  and productivity take-off the main conduit for
  sustained income generation and food security
• The total rice area cultivated in the Gambia,
  averaged 17,000 ha. between 1999 and 2003 and,
  produced on average about 19,500 tons of milled
  rice which corresponds to a very low yield of 1.3
  t/ha
• This quantity is significantly below the annual
  milled-rice requirement of 158,000 metric tons.
  Consequently, cereal imports in the Gambia, which
  are exclusively rice, has to be increased. In
  2003, a total of 136,000 tons valued at US 38.8
  million was imported.

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Operation feed yourself

• Because of the magnitude of the problem, it seems
  clear that most of the rice required will have to
  be produced in the country. People most learn to
  feed themselves by their own efforts (hence
  operation feed yourself), using resources
  available to them
• Is this possible? I am convinced that in much of
  the Gambia it is not only possible, but it is
  probably the only feasible way of doing it.
  
• Fortunately, most of the poor and poorly fed
  Gambians live in areas where rice can be grown
  comparatively cheaper 365 days of the year or
  part of it. In many such places people are short
  of rice because they are not willing to work a
  little harder or have not yet learned how to use
  efficiently all the basic resources available to
  them or have not decided to hinge and revolve
  their livelihood system around rice.

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Operation feed yourselfcontinues

• This paper is a brief presentation on the
  target-based increased rice production programme
  designed to make better use of our available land
  and human resources.
• In my opinion, increased domestic rice
  production, through a target-based production
  system shows considerable promise for meeting our
  import substitution needs as a prerequisite to a
  sustained economic and social progress.

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Rice Gambian food economy

• Rice is the most important crop in the food
  economy of The Gambia because most of the
  countrys population are rice eaters
  
• With an average per capita consumption of about
  107 kg, rice is synonymous with food contributing
  a larger portion of the total food intake than
  any other cereal
• In rural areas, rice provides about 75 percent of
  total calorie intake and about 45 percent of
  protein intake
  
• Therefore, any agricultural development strategy
  aimed at self-sufficiency in food - without
  taking into account the importance of rice - will
  be an insufficient development strategy.

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Rice Gambian food economycontinues

• Our rice cropping system is monoculture and the
  primary objective of the farmer is to produce all
  the rice needed by his family. His farm is small,
  ranging mostly from 0.5 to .75 ha. averaging
  about 1 ha.
• Rice yields are low, with an average of about
  1200 to 1300 kg/ha with the introduction of
  NERICAs, the average yield has progressively
  moved to the range of 2000 to 2500 kg/ha
• Impressive though, this yield level cannot
  sustain a family of six or eight but It is highly
  probably that the design and achievement of a
  closely supervised, target-based rice production
  programme would generate surplus production that
  would sustain both employment and income
  generation within the context of a sustained
  import substitution strategy.

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Increase rice production

• Attainment of self-reliance in rice production
  has been an important development aim in the
  Gambia. The beginning of efforts to reach this
  aim can be dated to 1953/54. With the failure of
  the Colonial Development Corporation funded Sapu
  Rice Farm in 1957, the Taiwanese Technical Team
  took the first step in the mid 60s, immediately
  after independence in 1965, to develop
  community-based lift pump irrigated rice
  development schemes
• This community schemes were followed by similar
  schemes funded by lending and donor institutions.
  These interventions resulted more in the
  practical documentation of the countrys rice
  production potentials than in any organised
  strategy for a sustained production programme, as
  yield and cropping intensities were low
• Unfortunately, all the interventions were neither
  accompanied by an appropriate incentive structure
  nor sustained changes in the agricultural service
  system

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Increase rice production continues

• Substantial rise in rice production is only
  feasible with improvements in these neglected
  areas.
  
• Therefore, the target-based production approach
  for an expanded and unified rice promotion
  programme, being planned for implementation as
  from January, 2006 should be seen as a programme
  of national survival
• That will draw adequate lessons from past
  experiences to be geared to sustained production
  and yield stabilisation
  
• This innovative approach will be designed for
  close coordination of services and for supply of
  technology packages ideal for our rice farmers
  and potential rice farmers across the country.

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Increase rice production continues

• Issues like cooperative enterprise approach, are
  vital in this regard and should be emphasized
  
• Easily monitored and evaluated performance
  oriented target-based development through
  production and yield stabilisation, extension,
  input supply, credit, supervised services,
  increased production and production
  intensification linked to organised marketing
  remained bottlenecks
• These could be addressed through the cooperative
  enterprise approach
  

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Rice promotion programme

• The Department of State for Agriculture is
  proposing an expanded rice promotion programme
  that will be launched in January, 2006
  
• The programme will revolve on a cooperative
  enterprise approach designed for target-based
  rice production system across the country. The
  initial phase of the programme, dry season NERICA
  promotion, will cover priority tidal and
  lift-pump irrigated areas in the north and south
  banks of the Central River Division (CRD, the
  rice bowl of the country)
• The rainy season programme will be made to hinge
  upon and revolve around NERICA promotion,
  outlining area and yield targets for each
  administrative division. The programme will be
  expanded to include major and associate rice
  producing districts across the country, with
  emphasis on producer cooperative associations

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Rice promotion programmecontinues

• Divisions will be given enough seeds to cater for
  their area need.
  
• With this rate of programmed multiplication, in
  addition to what has been done, the country may
  easily attain its NERICA seed requirements with
  surplus for consumption and/or export, in three
  years
• NERICA will then be used to design a stabilised
  production and productivity campaign, essential
  prerequisites for the design of an integrated
  self-reliant rice production infrastructure for
  an expanded import substitution and export
  promotion take off

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Rice promotion programmecontinues

• This will provide a coherent rice development
  guideline, relating production and productivity
  goals to domestic demand with an explicit
  understanding of the value of the rice sub-sector
  to the country
• This will facilitate our long-term perspective
  efforts to establish national goals and
  priorities for a relevant and demand driven rice
  research and development
• The focus will be on raising productivity to a
  target-based yield level as a basis for
  regularising and stabilising the income and food
  security status of farm households.

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Promotion programme objectives

• Increase rice yields to the target-based level
• Encourage and assist farmers in a supervised
  scheme to adopt the production package
  
• Provide intensive extension advice and
  information campaigns and make packages of inputs
  available to farmers
  
• Support the adoption and continuous use of
  recommended inputs through a supervised ? credit
  programme
  
• Provide incentive to farmers through a price
  support scheme and provide assistance in the
  marketing of their produce.

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Organization/Components

• Main components of the promotion programme will
  be-
  
• Delivery of NERICA seeds as well as fertilizer
  and other inputs at attractive prices
  
• A supervised credit scheme
• Creation of a special extension delivery system
  backed by an attractive incentive scheme
  
• The provision of regular information campaigns
  for public and private partners, and
  
• A coordinated management system at different
  divisional levels.

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Organization

• The promotion programme will be directed by the
  Department of State for Agriculture with the
  Secretary of State for Agriculture as its
  chairman
• Members of the promotion programme will come from
  government institutions, relevant private
  agencies (especially rice importers) and
  non-governmental organisation
• A national management committee will be
  responsible for the overall planning, management
  and evaluation of the programme. This committee
  will be supported by a specialised committee with
  representation at the divisional, district and
  village levels

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Organization continues

• The programme will be strongly integrated and
  supported by both government and private
  agencies, especially rice importers
  
• This functional linkage of administrations,
  support services and private institutions will
  determine the sustainability and success of the
  programme
• In addition, a purposeful Management Information
  System (MIS) will be designed to help record
  activities and prepare decisions
  
• Independent Service providers will be used to
  monitor and evaluate the performance of the
  programme at various levels.

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Producer cooperatives

• Farmers will be required to be members of a
  producer cooperative association as a
  prerequisite to accessing certain incentives.
  Access to incentives should result to stabilised
  production and yield levels for continuous
  membership in the cooperative associations
• Method and results demonstrations will be
  designed to function as farmer members
  introduction to the concept of Target-based
  cooperative enterprise
• Although experimental station plots are wonderful
  for showing what is possible, they are less
  credible as to what is probable
  
• There is nothing like seeing things in another
  farmers field to convince oneself of good
  performance under local conditions

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Producer cooperatives continues

• Working with women rice farmers in the 80s, made
  me think it was necessary to change attitudes in
  order to change behaviour. But my early
  experience with the Rokupr bred ROK5 showed the
  reverse possibility
• A group of cooperative farmers who initially were
  averse to using ROK5 eventually planted it after
  a number of incentives were applied on all fronts
  adhering to a calendar of activities, credit
  given
• When ROK 5 was planted, seeds provided were paid
  in-kind with, supervised on-farm activities,
  expenses paid when harvest failed, assured
  marketing for the surplus produce and a threat of
  ejection for non compliance with the on-farm
  guidelines as a prerequisites to attaining the
  target yield

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Producer cooperatives continues

• After trial, participants attitudes to ROK 5
  became favourable. Yield differences were
  determined through individual and group
  evaluations
• The change in behaviour brought about the change
  in attitude mainly because ROK 5 proved itself in
  terms of salt tolerance and yield performance
  
• Increased rice production through NERICA will be
  promoted through a replication of the FFHC
  experience, based on cooperative enterprise
  approach which had, in the areas of operation,
  generated sustained household food security,
  rural employment and improved livelihoods

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Strategic context

• The rapid increase in population, together with
  the escalating rural to urban drift, uncertain
  rainfall pattern and environmental degradation
  are posing serious threats to food (rice)
  security in the country
• The countrys population is increasing at the
  rate of about 3 per year and doubling every 20
  years. More than 40 of the countrys population
  are under the age of 15
• This scenario poses two major consequences. The
  first is that some members of this age group are
  child bearing while most have their childbearing
  years ahead of them
• Secondly, society will be required to allocate
  increasing shares of domestic savings to
  education, health and rice imports, thus reducing
  the resources available for productive investment
  in rice farming. This process is likely to
  further deteriorate the rice situation and
  quality of life

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Strategic context

• Presently there is a sharp decline in the income
  of farmers due to importation of rice, which puts
  heavy stress on the countrys foreign exchange
  resources. If this situation continuous it will
  cause serious hemorrhage on the countrys economy
  and contribute to increased poverty
• As most of the rural population earn their living
  from farming, the government is committed to a
  policy of improving and sustaining the national
  food security situation, while diversifying the
  income base of the rural poor as well as
  conserving the natural resource base of the
  production environment on a sustainable basis
• Increasing rice production through promotion
  programmes will contribute to a broad-based
  poverty reduction and ensure food security by
  promoting increased production and productivity
  of rice

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Strategic context

• The country has comparative and competitive
  advantage to satisfy domestic requirements for
  food and to increase incomes of smallholder
  farmers
• The tidal irrigation production system is
  expected to play a key role in this regard. It
  has the potential to facilitate the achievement
  of sustained food security, poverty reduction and
  employment generation
• Increasing rice production through promotion
  programmes will contribute to a broad-based
  poverty reduction and ensure food security by
  promoting increased production and productivity
  of rice which the country has comparative and
  competitive advantage to satisfy requirements for
  food and increase incomes of smallholder farmers

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Conclusion

• In closing, I would like to say I am only too
  well aware of he fact that I have merely
  scratched the surface of this vast and
  challenging
• In the time available, I have been able only to
  touch a few aspects of the issue, leaving many
  others aside without even a passing reference
  
• In doing so, I may well have excited more puzzles
  than provided clues. But if we are able to put
  this into action, even in some small measure,
  then I will be quite satisfied
• Indeed if, as a result of what has been the
  nucleus of this presentation, target-based, even
  if one of you is stimulated to undertake a
  national production campaign on this basis, or to
  be better informed on the subject and so to help
  create the climate or challenge in your part of
  Sub-Saharan Africa, then I will consider this
  policy workshop well worth the time and effort.

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NERICA THE SEED OF HOPE