Make rice value chain sustainable – IRRI, FOA

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have called for making of rice value chains sustainable, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In a joint press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet gathered that in many countries around the world rice is a staple crop for food security and consumption trends are growing.

“At the same time rice production is vulnerable to the increasing impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events such as droughts and floods,” the press statement read.

NaijaAgroNet reports that both FAO and IRRI are actively promoting more sustainable rice practices throughout the value chain - production, marketing and consumption - to optimize its nutritional properties and as a means of improving livelihoods and tackling poverty, particularly in rural areas.  

FAO has developed the Regional Rice Initiative for Asia and Pacific which promotes enhanced crop resilience while increasing efficiency and farmers' income. In Africa and in Latin America the UN agency is engaged in scientific and technical cooperation including the sharing of technologies and best practices to increase production and productivity, including reduction of post-harvest losses and improved grain quality.

IRRI is engaged in strengthening capacities of all rice sector actors through its capacity development activities, including IRRI Education and the Sustainable Rice Platform.

The Sustainable Rice Platform is a global alliance to promote resource efficiency and sustainability in trade flows, production and consumption operations, and supply chains in the global rice sector. The Sustainable Rice Platform recently established the world's first standard for sustainable rice. Through the Sustainable Rice Platform, IRRI aims to use environmental and socio-economic benchmarks to maintain yields for rice smallholders, reduce the environmental footprint of rice cultivation and meet consumer needs for food safety and quality.

NaijaAgroNet noted that at the same time, IRRI Education works to build capacity through-out IRRI's extensive partnership network.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Pix: Rice varities courtesy IRRI

Defective supply chain behind food waste in Africa

NaijaAgroNet

The food security challenges facing Africa has been attributed to defective supply chain as produce raised on some fertile cropland, the shortest route to the richest urban markets runs through another country, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Stephanie Gallatova, who cited the continent’s bad roads, insanitary conditions and poor food stock management as major problems, NaijaAgroNet gathered, said "The food losses occurring in Africa are due to limitations in the various technological and logistical factors in the food chain,"

Gallatova is an agro-industries officer with the FAO Regional Office for Africa, which conducts anti-food loss projects in more than a dozen West African countries. "We are looking at the whole value chain and seeing what investments can be made to reduce losses in a sustainable manner."

This geographic reality, with its multiple logistical hurdles, illustrates the food security challenges facing Senegal, for instance, and the wider West African region. 

The trouble with feeding people here is not so much the availability of food but its accessibility, adding, NaijaAgroNet learnt, that the difficulties arise not just in agricultural production but also in inefficient food delivery systems – in harvesting, storage, processing and transport.

In their 2014 Agricultural outlook report, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that food waste and losses represent a major threat to global food security over the next ten years.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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