hidden
Image Database Export Citations

Menu:

Can Africa Replicate Asias Green Revolution in Rice?

Show full item record

Type: Working Paper
Author: Larson, Donald F.; Otsuka, Keijiro; Kajisa, Kei; Estudillo, Jonna; Diagne, Aliou
Date: 2010
Agency: The World Bank, Agriculture and Rural Development Team, New York
Series: Policy Research Working Paper, no. 5478
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10535/6685
Sector: Agriculture
Region: Africa
East Asia
Subject(s): rice
food supply
green economics
Abstract: "Asia’s green revolution in rice was transformational and improved the lives of millions of poor households. Rice has become an increasingly important part of African diets and imports of rice have grown. Agronomists point out that large areas in Africa are well suited for rice and are encouraged by the field tests of new rice varieties. So is Africa poised for its own green revolution in rice? This study reviews the recent literature on rice technologies and their impact on productivity, incomes, and poverty, and compares current conditions in Africa with the conditions that prevailed in Asia as its rice revolution got under way. An important conclusion is that, to a degree, a rice revolution has already begun in Africa. Moreover, many of the same practices that have proved successful in Asia and in Africa can be applied where yields are currently low. At the same time, for many reasons, Africa’s rice revolution has been, and will continue to be, characterized by a mosaic of successes, situated where the conditions are right for new technologies to take hold. This can have profound effects in some places. But because diets, markets, and geography are heterogeneous in Africa, the successful transformation of the Africa’s rice sector must be matched by productivity gains in other crops to fully launch Africa’s Green Revolution."

Files in this item

Files Size Format View
WPS5478.pdf 1.811Mb PDF View/Open

This item appears in the following document type(s)

Show full item record