Can Africa Replicate Asia's Green Revolution in Rice?

Larson, Donald F. ; Otsuka, Keijiro ; Kajisa, Kei ; Estudillo, Jonna ; Diagne, Aliou

关键词: AFRICAN FARMERS;    AFRICAN RICE;    AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS;    AGRICULTURAL ECONOMISTS;    AGRICULTURAL GROWTH;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5478
RP-ID  :  WPS5478

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Asia's green revolution in rice wastransformational and improved the lives of millions of poorhouseholds. Rice has become an increasingly important partof African diets and imports of rice have grown. Agronomistspoint out that large areas in Africa are well suited forrice and are encouraged by the field tests of new ricevarieties. So is Africa poised for its own green revolutionin rice? This study reviews the recent literature on ricetechnologies and their impact on productivity, incomes, andpoverty, and compares current conditions in Africa with theconditions that prevailed in Asia as its rice revolution gotunder way. An important conclusion is that, to a degree, arice revolution has already begun in Africa. Moreover, manyof the same practices that have proved successful in Asiaand in Africa can be applied where yields are currently low.At the same time, for many reasons, Africa's ricerevolution has been, and will continue to be, characterizedby a mosaic of successes, situated where the conditions areright for new technologies to take hold. This can haveprofound effects in some places. But because diets, markets,and geography are heterogeneous in Africa, the successfultransformation of the Africa's rice sector must bematched by productivity gains in other crops to fully launchAfrica's Green Revolution.