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rice in Africa

The Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI)

The Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) was launched in 2013.
We, at CARI, support small-scale climate-friendly rice production, and advocate for cooperation on equal terms, between our target groups and the private sector.
Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has joined forces with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to achieve this. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) is implementing the project locally.

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Why we focus on rice

Rice is one of the most important staple crops in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in West Africa. In the past decades, demand for rice in the region has been growing faster than anywhere else in the world. The increases in demand cannot be met by local or regional production, as a result up to 40 % of Rice is imported from Asia. Lower processing and marketing infrastructure, missing access to high quality inputs as well as weaker markets disadvantage local production systems.

We, at CARI, work together with a variety of partners in order to empower rice farmers by increasing the competitiveness of domestic rice supply, thus raising their income.

 We currently work in Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Tanzania.

 

 

Support

     smallholder farmers

Support  smallholder farmers

Make

self-sufficiency a reality

Make self-sufficiency a reality

Mitigate

       climate impacts

Mitigate climate Impacts

Create

    added value with regional production

Create added Value with Regional Production

Our Approach

Our technical and financial assistance is based on a value chain approach. The principal aim is to foster linkages amongst rice value chain actors, and as a result, create win-win situations for all stakeholders.

We are mainstreaming sustainability by following the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) Standard. SRP is a multi-stakeholder platform established in 2011 to promote climate smart best practices for rice. SRP is led by UN Environment, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and GIZ. So far more than 100 institutional members committed themselves to follow SRP standards.

The SRP standard is an inclusive tool for practitioners in the public and private sector to drive wide-scale adoption of climate-smart sustainable best practice among rice smallholders and keeps it real as, it is designed for farm-level impact. Each requirement is relevant, practical, and under the farmer’s control.

Our achievements

The below numbers indicate the achievements and continuing success of CARI’s work over the past 8 years.

Direct and indirect beneficiaries with higher income and improved food security

0

Women trained in Farmer Business Schools (FBS) and nutrition

0

Smallholder farmers trained in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)

0

Smallholder farmers have participated in Famer Business Schools (FBS)

0

Smallholders trained in Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP)

0

Income increase of up to

0

Yield increase of up to

0

Women trained in parboiling

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Sustainable development goals

Recognizing the worldwide call, by the United Nations for Sustainable Development on Economic, Social and Ecological levels, the CARI project strongly contributes to the following Sustainable Development Goals: