Gabon, February 2021
Second working week for Gabon’s NRDS formulation
Since the previous working week in July 2019, changes in several senior positions in the Ministry of Agriculture had led to changes in the composition of Gabon’s NRDS Task Force. In particular, the new DG/ADAG has taken over the function of NRDS Focal Point for Gabon. Earlier, a draft NRDS was elaborated in June 2020 by Gabon Taskforce on the basis of the initial findings and consultations during the first working week with the support of the CARD Secretariat. These included validated canvas, results of SWOT analysis, analysis of the current situation, and the specific characteristics of Gabonese agriculture.
This draft was shared with CARD Secretariat and was reviewed and completed during a working week (WW) which was organized at the Hibiscus Hotel, outside the city center, with the assistance of the CARD Secretariat by video-conference, from 22nd to 26th February 2021.
Each day of the WW was devoted to a detailed review of the NRDS chapters: Chapters 1, 2, and 3 on day one, Chapters 4 and 5 on day two, and Chapters 6 and 7 on day three. The fourth day (Feb. 25th) was allocated to (i) participation in the 1st CARD Webinar on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and Rice Competitiveness in Africa and (ii) the detailed review of Chapter 8 which continued through Day 5. The Task Force rewrote the Vision, Overall Goal, and Specific Objectives of the NRDS and clearly formulated the key strategy statements.
– Vision: “By 2030, Gabon’s rice sector will be competitive, economically profitable and will cover the national rice needs”
– Overall objective: “Contribute to poverty reduction and overcome massive imports by promoting local production of quality white rice”
– Specific objectives are:
(1) Promote rice production to reach 130 000 T in 2030. This includes facilitating access to quality inputs (seeds, fertilizers, phytosanitary products) and equipment that will enable the high productivity of rice farms.
(2) To structure and organize the rice sector. This will include establishing associations of the actors of the rice value chain, to ensure that the actions carried out by these actors are interdependent, balanced, and coherent, and integrates, in an inclusive way, both the public and private sector.
During the working week, the task force decided to reduce the ambitions especially for production in rainfed rice-growing areas, since they are mostly under family farms, and to complete the table of physical objectives (target) based on estimated rice consumption and population growth in Gabon.
Subsequently, the results of each group’s work on Chapter 8 were presented and peer-reviewed in a plenary session, allowing the task force members to reach a consensus on the targets.
Thus, the main outcomes of this working week are: (i) the capacity of Task Force members is further enhanced through the working week; (ii) all the chapters of the strategy have been reviewed and refined, and (iii) the NRDS document has been significantly improved for validation by national stakeholders.
The next steps for the Gabon NRDS task force are (i) preparation of the NRDS operational plan and (ii) National validation of the NRDS, which is planned by May 2021.
(The above photo: Members of Gabonese NRDS Task Force with the CARD consultant who is on the screen)
