East Africa Rice Conference, May 2021
Co-organized by AfricaRice, Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) Programme of Future Agricultures Consortium, Centre for African Bio-Entrepreneurship (CABE), IRRI, and JICA, with support from CARD, FCDO and UK Aid, East Africa Rice Conference (EARC) 2021 was held from 18th to 20th May 2021. The conference was sponsored by Kubota Corporation and SoftBank Corp. Over 400 stakeholders interested in the rice sector development in the region attended the event.
The main themes of the conference were: a) Rice Research and Development, b) Inclusive Markets and Value Chains, c) Rice-based Livelihoods – Gender and Youth Integration, d) Integrated Rice Sector Development in a Changing Climate, e) Inclusive Finance and Investment, and f) Agricultural Policy Processes and Reforms.
The first day of the conference took place at national level. Participants from six East African countries, namely: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, discussed the six main themes at a workshop held in their respective countries.
The second and third days of the conference were held virtually. During the plenary sessions, various presentations were made, including the presentations by the six countries’ representatives to share the results of the discussions at the country level in the first day. Participants also attended group sessions of their choice where the main themes of the conference were discussed, following a series of presentations focusing on each subject.
EARC 2021 served as a platform for accomplishing the ambitious plan of strengthening domestic rice production in the region, by bringing together key players in the sector and initiating substantive discussions on the opportunities and challenges that it faces.
More details are available on the conference website below
https://sites.google.com/irri.org/earc2021
