RUCCI
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 6, 2011
- 1,701
- 1,714
Among the geographically and culturally diverse countries from Khartoum to Cape Town, the two top rice producing countries are Madagascar and Tanzania with 2.5 million tonnes and 1.4 million tonnes, respectively.
Carter Coleman, CEO of U.K.-based Agrica Ltd, operator of a large commercial rice farm in Tanzania said high quality rice is now the preferred grain of the urban middle class residents as well as the vast rural communities.
In a good year, Tanzania is self-sufficient in rice production, he said. He maintains that exports to neighboring Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, all members of the EAC bloc as well as to Eastern and Southern DRC, can exceed volumes of low-cost rice coming in from Asia.
Rice production in Tanzania is a mixture of corporate farms and smallholders. It is mainly concentrated in four main zones, including the Tsonga River Valley in the south and Arusha/Moshi in the north of Tanzania. Other places, including Magugu in Manyara region; Ifakara and Kilombero in Morogoro region and Kahama in Shinyanga region.
Small farmers have been benefiting from the introduction of new varieties and better agronomic practices. In the past, rice was sown by broadcasting. Now more transplanting is being introduced. New varieties include hybrids and aromatic varieties related to basmati.
Coleman, who is also vice-chairman of the Rice Council of Tanzania, thinks that the 75% EAC import duty will be needed for some time. The Rice Council has issued a position paper that says East Africa is decades away from competing with Asian exporters of rice on a cost basis.
In the Great Lakes Region, rice has a long history as a cash crop in certain well defined areas with irrigation schemes such as the Ruzizi Plain between Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika, straddling between Burundi and South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as well as in Uganda on the floodplain below Mount Elgon near the southeastern border with Kenya.
Indian rice producer Tilde has invested in rice farming and milling in Uganda, focusing on the basmati varieties it is known for.
In Rwanda, there has been a recent push to carve rice paddies out of the bottom of narrow river valleys throughout the country, but yields in some rain-fed highland areas can reach six tonnes per hectare.
A multitude of donors has funded projects to introduce improved seed varieties, fertilizers, mechanized farming implements, and better drying and storage facilities. The results are often mixed but progress has been made.
In Bukavu, the largest city in South Kivu, the Heineken-owned Bralima brewery sources locally from the Ruzizi Plain nearly all of its rice used as an adjunct. It was still importing rice from Asia several years ago and its need has increased as beer consumption has risen sharply.
In the remoter parts of DRC, such as the interior of South Kivu province, rice is an important rain-fed, subsistence crop that is hand sown, manually harvested and husked. Yields rarely exceed one tonne per hectare.
Kenya's rice imports are large because it has negotiated an exemption to the EAC common external tariff that allows Pakistan rice to come in with a 35% duty in reciprocity for special treatment of Kenya's tea exports to Pakistan.
As a cereal crop and staple food, rice has rapidly shifted in many countries of Eastern and Southern Africa from the margin to the mainstream. Both importation and local production of rice have been on the rise.
Source: busiweek.com
Carter Coleman, CEO of U.K.-based Agrica Ltd, operator of a large commercial rice farm in Tanzania said high quality rice is now the preferred grain of the urban middle class residents as well as the vast rural communities.
In a good year, Tanzania is self-sufficient in rice production, he said. He maintains that exports to neighboring Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, all members of the EAC bloc as well as to Eastern and Southern DRC, can exceed volumes of low-cost rice coming in from Asia.
Rice production in Tanzania is a mixture of corporate farms and smallholders. It is mainly concentrated in four main zones, including the Tsonga River Valley in the south and Arusha/Moshi in the north of Tanzania. Other places, including Magugu in Manyara region; Ifakara and Kilombero in Morogoro region and Kahama in Shinyanga region.
Small farmers have been benefiting from the introduction of new varieties and better agronomic practices. In the past, rice was sown by broadcasting. Now more transplanting is being introduced. New varieties include hybrids and aromatic varieties related to basmati.
Coleman, who is also vice-chairman of the Rice Council of Tanzania, thinks that the 75% EAC import duty will be needed for some time. The Rice Council has issued a position paper that says East Africa is decades away from competing with Asian exporters of rice on a cost basis.
In the Great Lakes Region, rice has a long history as a cash crop in certain well defined areas with irrigation schemes such as the Ruzizi Plain between Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika, straddling between Burundi and South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as well as in Uganda on the floodplain below Mount Elgon near the southeastern border with Kenya.
Indian rice producer Tilde has invested in rice farming and milling in Uganda, focusing on the basmati varieties it is known for.
In Rwanda, there has been a recent push to carve rice paddies out of the bottom of narrow river valleys throughout the country, but yields in some rain-fed highland areas can reach six tonnes per hectare.
A multitude of donors has funded projects to introduce improved seed varieties, fertilizers, mechanized farming implements, and better drying and storage facilities. The results are often mixed but progress has been made.
In Bukavu, the largest city in South Kivu, the Heineken-owned Bralima brewery sources locally from the Ruzizi Plain nearly all of its rice used as an adjunct. It was still importing rice from Asia several years ago and its need has increased as beer consumption has risen sharply.
In the remoter parts of DRC, such as the interior of South Kivu province, rice is an important rain-fed, subsistence crop that is hand sown, manually harvested and husked. Yields rarely exceed one tonne per hectare.
Kenya's rice imports are large because it has negotiated an exemption to the EAC common external tariff that allows Pakistan rice to come in with a 35% duty in reciprocity for special treatment of Kenya's tea exports to Pakistan.
As a cereal crop and staple food, rice has rapidly shifted in many countries of Eastern and Southern Africa from the margin to the mainstream. Both importation and local production of rice have been on the rise.
Source: busiweek.com
