Cote d’Ivoire, March 2019
1st working week for NRDS revision was held in Abidjan in March 2019
A working week for the development of the NRDS2 was held from the 18th to the 22nd of March 2019 in Côte d’Ivoire (CIV). This activity is in line with CIV’s government’s strong will of continuing to be a member of the second phase of the CARD initiative and also their willingness to define a new vision for achieving rice self-sufficiency. The Director General of l’Agence pour le développement de la filière riz (ADERIZ) and the representative of the Agricultural Ministry, the representatives of some donors (AfricaRice and JICA), the members of the rice Task Force (TF), the representative of producers’ organizations are among the participants. The workshop was divided into two parts, a plenary session where the basic information were shared and a group session where the team was subdivided into a working group for the elaboration of the document.
- Plenary session
During the plenary session, an opening ceremony was held at which the participants were informed of the importance and the objective of the work. After that, a detailed presentation was made regarding the results of the evaluation of the NRDS1 as well as some indication of good practices among the rice value chain.
After the plenary session, participant were divided into two groups:
- Group 1 worked on : what needs to be done to produce rice at any time and any place taking into account external factors such as climate change;
- Group 2 worked on : how to process paddy in order to have quality and competitive rice
- Working group session
During the working group session, the reporter, Mr. Ibrahima Sall (CARD Regional Consultant), facilitated the understanding of the members of the different groups and ensured the monitoring so that the different groups could work at the same pace. The diagnostic elements and the strategic objectives as well as the targets were set.
In general, they decided that the production target is to reach 5 million tons in 2030, productivity will be essentially improved, accompanied by a slight increase in irrigated areas in the short term. The current level in the rainfed cultivation area will be maintained so that in 2030 the irrigated area can increase from 20% to 40% of the total area. This will be achieved by improving the operating conditions of existing irrigation schemes (50% to 80%) and developing new irrigation schemes from 2021 based on the existing projects. As for the processing, the technical upgrading of existing units will be carried out in the short term and the acquisition of a hundred new processing units in the medium and long term. Finally, in relation to research, producers will be provided with inputs and technologies adapted to climate change. The modernization of production systems will be promoted through the development of mechanized services and access to spare parts and technical training.
A restitution of the results of the working group was done. And it allowed all the participants to realize that the target is somehow realistic. Thus the partners and the technicians present, welcoming the quality of the work, asked that the strategy be finalized in accordance with the deadlines they set in order to enable them to start implementing the NRDS2.
3. Way Forward
The next steps are to consolidate the outcome of the workshop by the end of March 2019, followed by preparation of a first draft of the NRDS2 towards the end of June 2019. Then the finalization and validation of the NRDS2 are to be done by the end of July 2019. Following these activities, the CARD Secretariat will support CIV for the organization of another working week for the development of concept notes (bankable projects).
