Promoting Traditional Rice Varieties and Women’s Access to Markets in West Africa

Lead Organization: FAHAMU

Partner Organizations: Nous Sommes La Solution (We are the Solution or WAS), The University of Ziguinchor, The Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA)

Location(s): West Africa

Award: $95,000 over 12 months

Fahamu Africa is a Pan-African organization established in 2007 in West Africa. It will collaborate with We Are the Solution (WAS) , a women-led campaign in West Africa to promote traditional knowledge, food sovereignty, peasant seeds, and agroecology. Rice production in West Africa is low. Local and traditional varieties appear very little in the scientific literature, in spite of innumerable virtues that local populations grant them. The purpose of this project is research (agronomy, crop management,nutritional) on some of these varieties and bringing production and marketing to a higher level. Fahamu and WAS will promote local rice varieties on farms and in markets via participatory action research coordinated by the the University of Ziguinchor and the Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research. The results of the research will be published for the general public and the political authorities in particular. The results will be useful for producers seeking to adopt agroecological practices in rice farming. Marketing opportunities, especially for parboiled rice, will be investigated.