沙漠研究 19-1, 77- 80 (2009 )Journal of Arid Land Studies“Desert Technology IX ”
Refereed Paper

Poverty Alleviation through NERICA Introduction
into Semiarid Sub-Saharan Africa
Makoto KITANAKA1, Ryuzo NISHIMAKI1, Tatsushi TSUBOI1, Shinji SUZUKI2, Satoru TAKAHASHI2
Abstract: This study discusses possibility of NERICA (New Rice for Africa)

introduction into semiarid Sub-Saharan Africa verifying a successful case ofcultivation in Uganda from view point of its productivity, economical profit and water
consumption, compared to other cereals in semiarid Sub-Saharan Africa. The
following points were argued, 1: Productivity of NERICA is significantly better whencompared to other crops, 2: Profit of NERICA production is much higher than othercrops, 3: NERICA could be cultivated stably with consecutive irrigation pond system
under severe semiarid conditions. As s result it would be possible to alleviate
poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa with introduction of NERICA from productive andeconomical point of view.
Keywords: NERICA, Semiarid area, Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda

1. Introduction
The Government of Japan manifested strong support for doubling rice production in Africa as themost important agricultural support of Japan in the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African
Development (TICAD 4) held in May, 2008 in Yokohama, Japan. The plan, doubling rice production
within ten years, is ambitious challenge which promotes suitable cropping, mixing lowland rice and upland
rice based on climate condition and access to water. The support activities are implemented not only by
the Government of Japan but other international agricultural research institute such as WARDA and IRRI.
Semiarid area covers major part of Sub-Saharan Africa and there are many poor countries in this region, 34
least developing countries (LDCs) in Sub-Saharan Africa among 50 in the Development AssistanceCommittee (DAC) under OECD recipient country list. However, it is considered that this semiarid region
would be potential area for NERICA New Rice for Africa), upland rice, cultivation in the future.
Therefore the possibility of NERICA introduction into semiarid area was studied referring to NERICA
cultivation in Uganda.
2. Background and Methods
Table 1. Consumption and production of staple
crops.
2. 1. Situation in Sub-Saharan Africa
Table 1 shows the changes in consumption and
1970
1980
2006
production of staple crops in Sub-Saharan Africa from
3,774
5,845
15,550Rice1970 to 2006 (FAO, 2008). For corn, sorghum, and(3,056)(3,657)(8,726)
millet, those consumptions have been comparable with the
10,27914,991
33,919production for the past 30 years. For rice and wheat, theCorn(11,027)(14,776)(33,183)
difference between consumption and production tend to
8,968
10,091
22,886
increase and further increase in the production is expected.
Sorghum(8,900)(10,243)(22,451)
However, wheat is suitable to be cultivated only under cool
8,125
9,756
17,164condition in South Africa and Kenya, basically.
Millet(8,127)(9,692)(17,164)
Therefore increase in the wheat production would cease
3,199
5,072
14,776and continuous import will be needed to meet demand.
Wheat(1,410)(1,320)(3,851)On the other hand, rice is basically a tropical crop and
expected to increase its production under suitable condition. Unit: 1,000 t, upper: consumption, lower: (Production)
Consumption of rice is rising in urban area of each country
1

Japan International Cooperation Agency, Shinjuku Maynds Tower Bldg., 12F, 2-1-1, Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo,151-8558, Japan. email: Kitanaka.Makoto@jica.co.jp
2
Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1-1-1, Sakuragaoka, Setagaya, Tokyo, 156-8502, Japan.

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in Africa, depending on import for shortage from Asian
countries such as Vietnam and Pakistan. For this reason,
this paper pays strong attention to rice.
2.2. Situation in Uganda
In Uganda there are 100,000 ha of rice production areain 2007. Figure 1 shows increase of upland rice, NERICA,
cultivation area from 2000 to 2007. Since NERICA wasintroduced to Uganda in 2000, NERICA has been expanded
rapidly and widely. NERICA cultivation area have reached
to one third of total rice cultivation area in Uganda (35,000ha). As upland rice requires less water, NERICA istherefore a hopeful crop in semiarid regions of Africa.

ウガンダの陸稲栽培面積（推定）ha35,00030,00020,00020,00013,00010,000
6,000
0

8,000

1,500
2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Fig. 1. Transition of NERICA cultivatingarea.

2.3. Research and analysis methods
The situation of crop production in Sub-Saharan Africa is very severe from view point of yield andtherefore importance of NERICA is pointed out. This importance was studied in its productivity,
economic aspect and water requirement of NERICA cultivation compared to other crops such as sorghum
and millet.
Table 2. Productivity of rice, sorghum and millet (2006).

3. Results and Discussion
RiceSorghum
Millet3. 1 Cultivation of NERICA
Productivity(Sub-Saharan
1.24
1.03
0.74
Table 2 shows productivity of rice,
Africa average）t/ha
sorghum and millet in Sub-Saharan Africa. Productivity(world average）
2.73
1.44
0.82
Yield per hector of sorghum and millet has
t/haless significant difference between in
Sub-Saharan Africa and world average. The
Table 3. Millet production and productivity.
yield per hector of these cereals seems to
1983
2003
Increment ratio
reach to its limit.
Although varietals
Cultivation area
improvement has been tried and new varieties
3,135,550
5,771,293
1.8（ha）
has been released in this area, it is considered
Production
1,298,345
2,744,908
2.1
that amount of rainfall is one of the important（ｔ）
factor to limit the production. On the other
Productivity
0.41
0.47
1.1
（t/ha）
hand yield per hector of rice is still the half of
its world average. Therefore rice remains
much room for improvement in its
Table 4. Profit of NERICA.
productivity toward world average.
Average cultivating area
0.4 haIn order to understand more in detail
Yield
1.7 t/ha（with no fertilizer）
comparison of productivity of millet in Niger
Market price1,200 Ush/kg = US$0.655
Total production
1,700 kg/ha×0.4 ha = 680 kg
from 1983 to 2000 is indicated in Table 3
Domestic
consumption
180 kg(Takahashi et al., 2007). The yield per
Selling amount
500 kg×1200Ush = 600,000 Ush
hector has remained on the same level of 0.4
Production cost
200,000 Ush
t/ha over the twenty years. It is obvious that
Gross profit
400,000 Ush（=US$218）
the yield of cereals in this region has its
limitation.
In contrast, as an example of productivity of NERICA, the average yield of NERICA in Uganda is 1.7
t/ha with sufficient rainfall. Most of cultivation in Uganda is under no fertilizer and no chemical
application and reaches to double score in its productivity. It is considered that NERICA has efficiency infood security from view point of productivity.
3. 2 Economy of NERICA production
Economical aspect of NERICA production was studied from view point of its yield, market price and

79
4692

5000
3903

Yield (kg/ha)

4000

TableTable
5. Comparison
consumption
in cereals
5. Comparisonofofwater
water consumption
in cereals
and rice.
and rice

3000

2000

plant life cycle（early ripening
variety）day
evapo-transpiration
ratio（crop coefficient）
water consumption（mm/day）

1547

1000
0

48

10mm

15mm

0
20mm

25mm

30mm

Water suplly (mm/5days)sorghum,
millet

rice

90

100

1.1

1.0

around 4around 3～7

Fig. 2. Relationship between water supply and yield.
Table 6. Successive no-rain days in Namurongue, Uganda (2 years probability).
successive
no-rain
days

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

Apr.

May

Jun.

Jul.

Aug.

Sep.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

21.5

12.2

10.2

6.0

11.6

13.5

15.5

12.5

11.1

8.1

10.7

12.1

profit per cultivating area, and indicated in Table 4. Market price of rice is five times higher than corn
(Jan, 2008: JICA unpublished data). In case of cultivation area of 0.4 ha, which is average cultivatingarea of farmers in Uganda, profit reaches to about US$220 except for domestic consumption andproduction cost. It values US$545/ha. This profit has very large impact considering GDP per capita in
Uganda, US$300 in 2006. From economical aspect NERICA has higher merit than other crops. It isreported that NERICA cultivating farmers input more education cost for their children and repair theirhouses and improve their livelihood.
3. 3 Water requirement of NERICA
Sorghum and millet have been cultivated in semiarid region for a reason of its less water requirement.
Figure 2 shows relationship between the amount of irrigation water and unhusked rice yield in
Namurongue agricultural experimental station, Uganda. Increasing rate of yield is significant with morethan 20 mm/5 days (i. e. 4 mm/day) of irrigation. Setting the cultivating period as 100 days this figure
indicates that it is possible to have more than 1.5 t/ha of yield with more than 400 mm of water apply
during cultivating period.
Table 5 shows a comparison of water consumption between miscellaneous cereals (i. e. sorghum andmillet) and NERICA (Takahashi et al., 2007). The consumption of these crops is almost on same level.
Since sorghum and millet have been cultivated in semiarid area due to difficulty of water supply, it ispossible to cultivate NERICA in this region.
Since water is essential factor in crop production, irrigation ponds which assure the maximum use of
rainfall would bring stable NERICA cultivation. Table 6 shows successive no-rain days per month with
two years probability based on rainfall data from 1990 to 2006 in Namurongue. Table 6 indicates clearly
that successive no-rain days in March to May and September to November are small with less than twelve
days.
For this reason, the drought risk is reduced with supplemental irrigation with irrigation ponds used forwater harvesting. In case of other countries where the condition of water resources is more severe, theconsecutive irrigation pond system will be a helpful measure to reduce the drought risk. Therefore, it ispossible to introduce NERICA into dry Sub-Saharan Africa.
4. Conclusions
The introduction of NERICA into Sub-Saharan Africa was discussed from vies point of its
productivity, economical aspect and water requirement based on situation of this region with successful

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NERICA introduction case of Uganda. As a result, following points were argued from experiences in
Uganda.
1. Productivity of NERICA is significantly higher compared to other crops such as sorghum andmillet, and could be more improved.
2. Profit of NERICA production is much higher than other crops with more than US$500/ha.
3. NERICA could be cultivated stably with irrigation ponds or consecutive irrigation pond system
under semiarid condition.
As mentioned above it is possible to alleviate poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa with introduction of
NERICA from productive and economical point of view.
References
FAO (2008): FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division
Takahashi S, Kitanaka M., Nishimaki R., Takahashi S., Watanabe F. (2007): Potential to extend NERICA from a view point of water
use in Africa. Journal of Arid Land Studies, 17: 33-38.