Emerging models to drive rice intensification in West Africa

Robert BerlinSyngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

3rd Africa Rice Congress, 22.10.1013

2

Reasons to go «Rice» in West Africa

Source: MSUIncreasing Rice Demand in West Africa

Drivers for rice intensification in West Africa

•Rice demand explosion

•Smallholder openness towards new agrosystems

•Growing public and private interest

•«Maintaning food security»

Current smallholder systems lack efficiency

Domestic input

suppliers Domestic farmers

Collectors & wholesalers

Retailers Consumers in end-markets

ImportersForeign farmers Foreign exporters

Problems to overcome

Poor access to input (equipment, seeds, CP, fertilizer)

Poor infrastructure and logistics

No adequate output market access

Current smallholder systems lack efficiency

Domestic input

suppliers Domestic farmers

Collectors & wholesalers

Retailers Consumers in end-markets

ImportersForeign farmers Foreign exporters

Domestic input suppliers Domestic farmers Collectors &

wholesalers

Retailers Consumers in end-markets

ImportersForeign farmers Foreign exporters

The Mission: Integrating smallholdersinto functioning rice value-chains

The main Syngenta Foundation intervention areas

•Construction of reliable certified seed systems

•Provision of support at farmer level

•Development of service delivery systems

•Creation of sustainable cross-value chain partnerships

•Leveraging of cloud-based ICT for smallholder support

The Mission: Integrating smallholdersinto functioning rice value-chains

Project targets

•Provision of appropriate harvest equipment

•Improvements to milling and handling processes

•Reduction of the number of intermediary traders

•Improvement of supply chain reliability and quality

•Increased product quality and yield

Reducing post harvest losses by 50%

Increasing smallholder income by 50%

The outlined projects

Project Key Features Smallholders involved

Copa Connect(Ghana)

• Contract farming with quality premium• Infrastructure-driven production• Farmers’ service center

5’000

Yaanovel(Côte d’Ivoire)

• Contract farming with quality premium• Public and private based service

provision

5’000

Sahel Farming(Burkina Faso)

• Contract farming• Private based service provision• Production protocols

3’000

Office du Niger(Mali)

• Warrantage with credit system• Public service provision

1’000

Sénégal River Valley(Senegal)

• Warrantage and contract farming• Public service provision• Contracts with large-scale mills

1’400

GADCO – Copa Connect

Emerging models for rice value chain intensification

Conclusions and implications

• High diversity of rice production systems

• Climatological and socio-economical differences

• Aggregation mechanisms important to increase smallholder market power

• Logistics and infrastructure are issues

Producer-driven models very efficient in providing:

•Inputs

•Mechanization

•Know-how

•Finance

•Planning security