Launching of EAC Regional Rice Platform, 23rd Jan, 2020
Agriculture and Food security constitute one of the priority economic sectors of the East African Community (EAC). The member states of EAC viz., Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and South Sudan are also member countries of the CARD phase II. In an effort to coordinate and harmonize the rice sector development in these member countries, CARD Steering Committee (SC) endorsed a regional approach under CARD phase II.
With support from GIZ and USAID through AGRA, the EAC Secretariat in collaboration with Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) and Kilimo Trust (KT) has recently developed a program for East Africa (CARI-EA) through which production, productivity, and trade-related issues in the region are being identified. Under this program, a regional rice platform involving public and private representatives from each of the 6 EAC member states is being set up.
A series of discussions between the EAC Secretariat and the CARD Secretariat around this platform opened up a window of opportunity for CARD to collaborate with EAC in developing a regional rice development strategy. Acknowledging the importance of the formulation of such a regional strategy, the EAC Secretariat invited CARD Secretariat to participate in the launch of the EAC Regional Rice Platform (ERRP). Responding to an invitation from EAC Secretariat, the CARD Secretariat organized a mission for the General Coordinator and the Regional Consultant to participate in the launching of ERRP.
CARD’s participation and Results
The objectives of the mission are to (i) become acquainted with the relevant office bearers of the ERRP, CARI-EA, KT and EAC Secretariat, and (ii) participate in the discussions on (a) the key issues affecting production, productivity and trading of rice in the region and (b) mode of operation of the ERRP.
The launch of the ERRP was organized at Nairobi Safari Club in Nairobi on the 23rd of January 2020. Two representatives (one each from public and private sectors) each from 5 member states (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and South Sudan) and one public sector representative from Rwanda constituted the ERRP. The meeting was participated by other key rice stakeholders in the region such as Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC), East African Business Council (EABC), East African Farmer Federation (EAFF), Africa Rice Advocacy Platform (ARAP), Agricultural Market Development Trust (AGMARK), KT, CARI-EA, EAC, and CARD.
The platform was officially launched by the Deputy Secretary-General of the EAC Secretariat. Based on the preliminary analyses, the Team Leader of the CARI-EA program informed the participants that the major non-tariff barriers affecting the rice trade in the region include (i) lengthy bureaucracy, (ii) incompetent implementation of the sanitary and phytosanitary procedures, (iii) awareness of rules on packaging, (iv) ad hoc export and import bans, (v) lack of fool-proof verification of Rules of Origin, and (vi) frequent remissions under the EAC common external tariff (CET).
The participants also discussed other major issues that are faced by the rice sector in the region that could be addressed by the ERRP in the medium (2-years) and longer-term. The other major issues identified by the participants include (i) lack of advocacy to the member states on trade-related policies, (ii) weak competitiveness of rice produced in the region against the imported rice from Asia, (iii) inadequate awareness on data related to production, practices, preferences, prices and markets in member states, standards, trade rules and regulations, (iv) inadequate access to inputs, technologies, irrigation infrastructure and finance leading to stagnant productivity and poor quality of production, (v) inadequate resource mobilization, (vi) low levels of digitalization of data and information on rice sector and (vii) weak integration of youth and gender.
In order to prioritize the issues that could be tackled through the ERRP, the participants ranked (1) policy advocacy, (2) promoting market competitiveness of regional rice and (3) promoting sharing of information on best practices and knowledge on trade, investments, production and productivity as the objects under a regional rice development strategy. It was agreed that digitalization will be included as a cross-cutting element while addressing these 3 top priority issues.
It was agreed that in general, the ERRP will be operationalized according to the existing EAC rules and procedures. The member states also agreed that the public sector representative in each of the member states will serve as EAC’s national rice focal person. The ERRP shall convene meetings twice a year and discuss the issues and actions that need to be taken for the development of the rice sector in the region.
Way forward
The member states have agreed to formulate a regional rice development strategy under the guidance of CARD and EAC. In this regard, the CARD Secretariat is expected to organize a meeting of the ERRP during the last week of March. The representatives of the member states have also agreed with the EAC Secretariat to hold the next meeting of ERRP in June 2020.
(Photo the above: EA Rice Platform members and Hon. Bazivamo, DSG, EAC Sec., and his staff)
