To fight food insecurity and climate change, Senegal is increasingly employing a relatively new strategy for growing rice, known as the “system of rice intensification” (SRI). Developed in Madagascar in the 1960s, this method of growing rice intentionally stresses the plants, which allows the farmer to use less water, improves soil fertility, decreases methane emissions, […]
Rice is a staple crop that has been grown in West Africa for more than 3500 years, since the domestication of African rice (Oryza glaberrima). Produced by low-income smallholders across the entire region, rice plays a key role in regional food security for rural and urban populations. In recent years, increasing demand stemming from population […]
The contribution and impacts of rice – like any and all agricultural products – to the livelihoods of people has far greater significance to human (and the earth’s) welfare than is captured by yields or production statistics alone. We introduce a few of these considerations here, but they are as well the overall focus of […]