Hello Nayar, Good day. I am writing further to your comment:
"nowadays, African rice is hardly cultivated commercially in west
Africa"
I presume you mean large scale, mechanized and commercialized cultivation of rice for export and not necessarily for local consumption. In my mind-eyes, I am visualizing acres of paddies teaming with huge tractors and combine harvesters that process rice once ripened. In the absence of these, your adverb “hardly” may be backed. This would be your ideal commercial cultivation. To start with, peasant cultivation could be commercial and that goes for plenty of crops being cultivated in Western Africa. The simple farming implements used by peasants are machetes and traditional hoes. I can talk of the Cameroon Republic that I know at close quarters. Rice is produced commercially in the Far North Region (ex-Province) in the valleys of Logone, Shari and Benue Rivers; the Northwest, West and the Littoral Regions. Prominent in the western and southern parts of the country are the Upper Noun in the Ndop Plain, Ber Plain, Baigom-Koutaba in the West Region; Mbonso and Menchum River Valley in the Northwest Region.
In my recent survey on agricultural investment potentials ( April 2011) in the Northwest and West Regions of Cameroon Republic, the problem most of the farmers I interviewed highlighted were stiff competition of imported rice from Thailand, China, India, and Sri-Lanka; mechanization, transport and processing. Production could be enhanced if the government of the day protected the budding local industries. Then, the government authorities want to show the world that their economy is fair and free and their ports are open even for dumped goods.
Also, I know that there are commercial rice production and processing in Ivory Coast, the two Guineas and Sierra Leone. The last was once upon a time an international exporter of rice but is importing today. If these producers are not big international or intercontinental exporters, it is due to lack of investment capital, adequate processing facilities and packaging. The conditions for the production of upland and wet rice are there and expansion and commercial potentials are huge. However, the attitude of local consumers may not be helpful in boosting the local rice industries. In the Cameroon, buyers take parboiled rice from Thailand wet rice as being different and better than locally produced rice. They have no clue of what has been done to the raw rice to male it look the way it is. In consequence, buyers prefer expensive parboiled from SE Asia to cheap locally produced species whose qualities are the same. The only difference is that the former is been processed and sometimes brushed to look pleasing to the eye. Others buyers cannot differentiate between rice whose oil has been extracted and the quality debased. Therefore, they think that rice without oil is better than their untouched rice. Is it? It is the matter of education.
Having said all these, some Cameroon rice is exported to neighboring Nigeria, Gabon, and Chad. Therefore, to make the statement that African rice is hardly cultivated commercially may be off-beam. If you intend to write a creditable thesis or defend what I see as an allegation, do endeavor to write all the ministries of agriculture in West African nation states with a questionnaire on rice production. I am certain that they would be glad to furnish you with tangible statistics on commercial rice production. Finally, if you have the money to tour, see for yourself the nature of rice cultivation and gather information in these countries that may be superlative. I will not be surprised that the FAO and ECOWAS will hunt for your publication like grains of gold.
Dr Viban Ngo,
vibanngo@yahoo.com
> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2011 16:36:40 +0000
> From: beckerleschar@ORANGE.SN
> Subject: Subject CORRECTION --- African Rice: QUERY
> To: H-WEST-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
>
> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2011 12:32:50 -0400
> X-Posted from H-NET List for African History and Culture
>
> From: Jonathan Reynolds
> ________
>
> From: NM Nayar
> (Data One)
>
>
> [Editor's Correction: I incorrectly identified the subject of the first
> query]
>
> I am a scientist from India working on Crop plants origins. Recently, I
> have visited west Africa only very briefly, early last year to attend the
> III Africa Rice Congress, Mali Republic. But, I hae read fairly
> extensively about west Africa, and have also interacted with a lot of
> scientists before I made a statement in two papers on west African rice,
> that "nowadays, African rice is hardly cultivated commercially in west
> Africa''. One of the reviewers contested the statement. According to her ,
> west African rice is cultivated even now by the Jola and Bagga linguistic
> groups in Guinea and Senegal particularly.
>
> Can those among the Group, who are familiar with the present situation
> clarify the position?
Dr Viban Ngo,
vibanngo@yahoo.com
> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2011 16:36:40 +0000
> From: beckerleschar@ORANGE.SN
> Subject: Subject CORRECTION --- African Rice: QUERY
> To: H-WEST-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
>
> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2011 12:32:50 -0400
> X-Posted from H-NET List for African History and Culture
>
> From: Jonathan Reynolds
> ________
>
> From: NM Nayar
> (Data One)
>
>
> [Editor's Correction: I incorrectly identified the subject of the first
> query]
>
> I am a scientist from India working on Crop plants origins. Recently, I
> have visited west Africa only very briefly, early last year to attend the
> III Africa Rice Congress, Mali Republic. But, I hae read fairly
> extensively about west Africa, and have also interacted with a lot of
> scientists before I made a statement in two papers on west African rice,
> that "nowadays, African rice is hardly cultivated commercially in west
> Africa''. One of the reviewers contested the statement. According to her ,
> west African rice is cultivated even now by the Jola and Bagga linguistic
> groups in Guinea and Senegal particularly.
>
> Can those among the Group, who are familiar with the present situation
> clarify the position?
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