2023-10-12 22:15:39
Côte d’Ivoire produces only 1.2 million tonnes of milled rice per year, for a need estimated at 2 million tonnes. A gap that it must fill with imports. In the coming years, public and private players in the sector hope to achieve self-sufficiency, but there are still many obstacles.
From our correspondent in Abidjan,
« Here we have different varieties. Basmati, Bouaké, CB1 which is diabetic rice, which we call black rice or purple rice. »
There is something for everyone… Great fans of rice, Ivorians consume on average 84 kg per capita per year. With a particular appetite for local grain, explains Mama Dosso, wife of Ohouo, processor and seller of seasoned rice.
« The Ivorian consumer knows that local rice is very good rice. Fragrant naturally, depending on the season, and good to consume. Local rice is seasonal rice. It’s natural rice, not rice that lasts on boats… It’s fresh rice all the time. »
A need for modernization of production
The demand is there, but the supply is not keeping up… To increase yield, industry players recommend, as a priority, modernizing production. Yacouba Dembélé, the general director of the Agency for the Development of the Rice Sector, Aderiz, highlights the Indian model.
« India has moved from a rice-importing country to a rice-exporting country, thanks to its mechanization system. So this is what we have developed at home. What have we done ? We encouraged young people to create SMEs, we trained them and we equipped them. It is these young people who provide services. When the farmer needs to do his plowing, he can call on a service provider who comes to do his plowing and pays him at harvest. Thanks to that, even though we were 4 years old % of mechanization, today, in the space of two years, we have increased to 15 % mechanization. »
Increasingly degraded soils
According to Aderiz figures, the Ivorian state has distributed 3 billion CFA francs worth of agricultural machinery to these SMEs and is also investing in processing factories. But producers must reckon with other obstacles, linked to soil degradation and climate change. This is what the National Agricultural Research Center (CNRA) is trying to remedy. Dr. Kouakou Amani Michel is the deputy director general of the CNRA.
« The Ivorian forest cover is heavily destroyed, so fallow periods become less and less long, therefore the soils become poorer. It is therefore necessary to regenerate the soil. We also have diseases. Linked to climate change, new diseases are appearing. The CNRA must fight once morest these new diseases. There is a traditional disease which is yellow variegation. The CNRA has developed varieties that are resistant to yellow variegation. »
By the end of the year, Côte d’Ivoire hopes to be able to produce 4,200 tonnes of seed. It ultimately aims to reach 6,000 tonnes annually to also be able to supply the sub-region.
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