The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Rice Observatory is holding its first Annual General Meeting from May 21 to May 23, 2024, in Abuja, Nigeria, under the theme « Aligning objectives and charting a roadmap to accelerate the growth of a competitive rice sector in West Africa », reads the ECOWAS website. The meeting will be attended by ECOWAS member states and partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AfricaRice, the German Cooperation – GIZ, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Islamic Development Bank, the FCDO, AGRA, Japan through the JICA/CARD Agency, the World Bank and other strategic partners. The AGM highlighted the challenges facing the rice sector, and the obstacles to its growth and competitiveness. These include low productivity, limited market access, ineffective sector coordination/harmonization, inadequate infrastructure and vulnerability to climate change. « To solve these problems, it is necessary to bring together ORCE’s partners who are players in the West African rice sector, align strategies and draw up a roadmap to accelerate the sector’s growth, » said Alain Sy Traoré, Director of Agriculture and Rural Development of ECOWAS, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ECOWAS Rice Observatory (ORCE), representing the Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture of the ECOWAS Commission, Massandjé Touré-Litse. The ORCE, created in December 2021 jointly by the ECOWAS Commission and its partners, was born of the realization that although national rice production has improved in West African countries since the 2008 food crisis, it only meets 60% of the region’s growing demand and preferences. To remedy this, ECOWAS, she explains, adopted the ECOWAS Rice Offensive in 2015, a strategic framework for ECOWAS agricultural policy (ECOWAP) in line with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). The aim is to generate a sustainable and sustained revival of rice growing in West Africa, and to support member states’ National Rice Development Strategies (NRDS). The ORCE General Assembly represents an important milestone in efforts to improve rice production, distribution and food security in West Africa, it says. #OMA #OrganisationMarocAfrikaCulturesetDéveloppement #NajibKettani #Society # ECOWAS #ORCE #Rice #AssembleeGenerale
