Although this rate was high compared to the performance of other major crops, it meant that regional rice production only barely exceeded population growth, and was meeting only two-thirds of the increased demand. The source of the increases in rice production carries important danger signals suggesting that such growth is not likely to be sustainable. The widening gap between regional supply and demand has been met by imports. Imports of this magnitude represent a major brake on broader development efforts. In many areas of West Africa, rice is produced primarily by female farmers, generating an important share of their incomes.
Female incomes tend to benefit children and other vulnerable groups more than do the incomes of men.
Despite this fact, past efforts to generate and transfer new rice technologies have most often by-passed women farmers. Thus, while research on rice can be particularly effective in improving the welfare of rural groups at risk, to do so it needs to be explicitly structured and focused to deal with complex gender issues. In highly populated areas of West Africa, rising cropping intensity in fragile upland ecosystems has already begun to degrade the resource base with loss in production potential. Rice has a key role to play in providing options for sustainable intensification. Rice is uniquely well adapted to flooded lowland ecosystems where the soils are least fragile and best able to support continuous cultivation.