Rice Sector Development Hubs

Rice Sector Development Hubs

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Rice sector development hubs represent key rice-growing environments and different market opportunities across African countries and are linked to major national and regional rice-development efforts to facilitate broader uptake of rice knowledge, technologies and innovations.

 

These are zones where rice research products from the research programs and the Africa-wide rice Task Forces and local innovations are tested, adapted and integrated across the rice value chain to achieve development outcomes and impact. Task Force activities focus on the rice hubs to avoid dispersion of activities.

 

Hubs are built around large groups of farmers and involve other value-chain actors, such as rice millers, seed enterprises and input dealers, and rice marketers. Hubs work to improve value chains by investing in institutional innovations and market development. Innovation platform (IP) is a key catalyst  of the rice sector development Hubs.

 

The main objective of the rice hubs is to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the rice value chain through; (i) Integration of rice systems in partnerships and businesses (ii) Increased adoption of appropriate technologies and innovations on rice (iii) Knowledge sharing and learning (iv) Improved governance structures and systems of IPs in the rice hubs.

 

In total, 74 Hubs in various agro-ecological zones have been identified by national programs in 25 countries. In 2016, a decision was made to make a difference between ‘core’ hubs and ‘satellite’ hubs.
 

Core hubs:

• Are based in a major rice producing and/or importing country;

• Benefit from strong government commitment to rice sector development;

• Benefit from the presence of AfricaRice and/or national centers of specialization on rice;

• Have adequate funding support from restricted projects;

• Have clear market potential for trade in locally produced rice;

• Benefit from strong interest of private sector and development partners;

• Demonstrates synergy and complementarity between and among the Africa-wide rice Task Forces, and strong linkages with scaling partners;

• Uses functional IPs in the rice value chain of the hubs to generate/test and enhance the dissemination of technologies and innovations.

 

The total number of core hubs hover around 15-20. Experiences, results, and insights from core hubs will be transferred to satellite hubs through various communication channels such as learning visits, demonstrations, and printed documentation.

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