New Rice for Africa facts for kids
NERICA stands for New Rice for Africa. It's a special type of rice created to grow better in Africa. Scientists at the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) developed it. Their goal was to help African countries grow more of their own rice.
Many people in West Africa eat rice every day. Most of this rice has to be bought from other countries. Growing enough rice in Africa would mean more food security (people having enough food). It would also help the economy.
The NERICA project gets money from the African Development Bank, the Japanese government, and the United Nations Development Programme. By 2008, new NERICA rice varieties were planted on over 200,000 hectares (about 494,000 acres) in countries like Guinea, Nigeria, Mali, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and Uganda. This was a big step forward, but more rice is still needed.
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African and Asian Rice Varieties
For about 3,500 years, people in Africa grew a type of rice called African rice (Oryza glaberrima). This rice was very good at growing in Africa's environment. It grew thick and tall, which helped to stop weeds from growing. It could also handle dry weather and was strong against pests like the African rice gall midge and diseases like Rice yellow mottle virus.
However, African rice didn't produce much grain. Its stalks would often fall over when the grain heads were full. Also, the grains could break off easily, which meant less rice to harvest.
Because of these problems, farmers started growing Asian rice varieties (Oryza sativa). These Asian types usually produce more grain. But Asian rice needs a lot of water to grow well. They also don't compete well with weeds and can get sick or suffer from pests in African conditions.
Developing New Rice for Africa
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Scientists created NERICA by crossing African rice (O. glaberrima) with Asian rice (O. sativa). These two types of rice don't usually mix naturally. So, scientists used a special lab method called embryo-rescue. This technique helped the baby plants from the cross to survive and grow.
The new NERICA rice plants show something called heterosis. This means the new hybrid plants grow faster, produce more, and are stronger against problems than either of their parent plants.
Key Features of NERICA Rice
NERICA rice has many great features:
- Each grain head can have up to 400 grains, much more than the 75-100 grains on older types.
- It can produce 2.5 tonnes of rice per hectare (about 1 acre) without fertilizer. With fertilizer, it can produce up to 5 tonnes per hectare.
- NERICA rice has 2% more protein than its parent rice types.
- It grows taller than most rice, which makes it easier for farmers to harvest.
- It is stronger against pests. It also handles dry weather and poor soils better than Asian rice.
Some NERICA types can grow well even with very little water. This makes them good for farming in dry areas for a long time.
A scientist named Monty Jones was a leader in creating NERICA. For his work, he shared the 2004 World Food Prize.
