[ ] 58 A Better World Rice research in the development of livelihoods and sustainable food value chains in Africa Manneh B, Jalloh A, Arouna A, Africa Rice Centre Rice is the second most important crop after wheat in fighting undernutrition in Africa, with more than 100 million livelihoods depending on it. However, despite the 20 million smallholder farmers producing rice on the continent, Africa is still not self-sufficient. In 2022–2023, total rice imports were 17 million metric tons (MT) out of a total consumption of 38 million MT. The Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice) is a pan-African Centre of Excellence for rice research, development and capacity building, with a membership of 28 African countries. The vision of AfricaRice is to sustainably improve food and nutrition security for a healthy and prosperous Africa. It contributes to reducing poverty, achieving food and nutrition security and improving livelihoods of farmers and other rice value chain actors in Africa by increasing the productivity and profitability of rice-based agri-food systems, while ensuring the sustainability of natural resources. Thanks to its partners and donors, AfricaRice invested a cumulative total of US$373.66 m between 1998 and 2020. The majority of these investments were used to develop and disseminate innovative technologies and knowledge to boost local rice production and reduce the gap between domestic supply and demand. AfricaRice is committed to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Within the framework of the One CGIAR, AfricaRice is addressing 9 of the 17 SDGs, namely SDG 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15 and 17. Increasing access to climate-resilient, productive and consumer-preferred rice AfricaRice and its partners have developed and released about 570 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties over the years. Since the first release in the early 2000s, New Rice for Africa (NERICA) varieties have revolutionized rice production A farmer manually harvesting one of AfricRice’s improved varieties Image: Africa Rice Centre
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