Developed by Dr. Monty Jones of the West Africa Rice
Development Agency (WARDA),

NERICA is a hybrid
strain of rice, developed using biotech by West African
researchers, which is on its way to bettering the health of
West and Central African citizens, restoring agricultural
sustainability, and improving the economics of food
importation for the region.

NERICA
mixes African rice (Oryza glaberrima), which is
highly resistant to drought and local pests, but has a very
low yield (which in turn leads to widespread "slash and
burn" style farming), and Asian rice (Oryza sativa),
which has a very high yield per plant, but is much more
sensitive to environmental conditions (which leads to
increased use of pesticides). These two species of rice do
not cross naturally or with traditional hybridization
techniques; the genetic differences are just too much. Jones
began a biotechnology-based program in 1991, and by the
mid-1990s had developed different strains of a hybrid rice
combining the best aspects of both parent species. WARDA
then embarked on a multi-year community-based program to
test these strains across West Africa:

This work has led to the rapid
development of more than 3000 NERICA lines. Dr. Jones
and WARDA, under the leadership of its Director General
Kanayo F. Nwanze, have worked on multiple levels to
ensure the widest possible use of this new improved
rice. Using gender sensitive approaches, they have
brought together farmers, scientists, extension workers,
NGOs, and governments to create a community based seed
system whereby local farmers can choose which NERICA
variety best fits with their local needs. As
demonstrated in the pilot projects undertaken in Benin,
Côte dIvoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo,
NERICA has the potential to benefit 20 million rice
farmers (many of whom are women) and 240 million
consumers in West Africa alone.

In 2004, Dr. Jones won the

World Food Prize
for his efforts, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for
Agriculture. The NERICA research made use of -- and has
helped to preserve -- the genetic lines of 1,500 varieties
of African rice facing extinction as farmers shifted to
higher-yield Asian varieties. NERICA is

helping to improve
agricultural sustainability, as well, in terms of both the
environment and food supplies:

About 40 percent of West Africa's 4.1
million hectares of rice is grown under upland/rain-fed
conditions, grown like maize, and about 80 percent of
this is slash-and-burn agriculture. Each crop grown
after a slash-and-burn cycle produces less than the
previous harveststressing an already fragile ecosystem,
and driving up demand for rice imports.

The new hybrid varieties of upland
rice mature in only three months, allowing for planting
of a second crop or a leguminous cover crop to improve
soil fertility. This makes it possible to plant rice for
more than one year before returning land to fallow,
reducing slash-and-burn agriculture. It also provides
food during the difficult "hungry" season.

Wider adoption of NERICA will have economic benefits, as
well.

Africa is a net importer
of rice; demand for rice in West and Central
Africa is growing at over 6% annually, faster than anywhere
else, and rice imports represent 25% of food imports to the
region.

Jones asserts
that a 25% adoption of NERICA in West Africa would lead to
savings over $100 million every year, money which can then
be spent on other pressing needs. And

NERICA is not just
appropriate for Africa -- there are 17 million
hectares of rice in Asia and 4 million hectares in Latin
America grown in conditions similar to those in West Africa,
where

drought-resistant rice
could be of great value.

What makes NERICA most exciting, at least for me, is that
it is African researchers doing work to benefit Africa,
using advanced scientific techniques to develop something
the world had never before seen, which could in turn improve
lives around the world. It's South-South Science, it's
leapfrogging... "A Technology from Africa for Africa," as
the WARDA flyer asserts, but potentially far more.