West Africa rice research and development

This study evaluates the impact of a 1975-80 A.I.D. project aimed at helping WARDA define and attain these goals. Of the project's two research programs, only the mangrove rice program at Rokupr, Sierra Leone, produced important and still circulating results. This was due to its longer history as a research station, its financial and administrative independence, better communications with local farmers, and strong scientific leadership. The deepwater/floating rice project at Mopti, Mali, on the other hand, proved an undisciplined effort without significant result. Overall, and due in part to the separation of technological and economic policy solutions in its charter, WARDA's impact on regional rice production has been very limited and imports are higher than ever. WARDA's current AID-supported collaboration in upland rice research - neglected so far, although it has the greatest potential - may help reverse this situation. WARDA also established a training center next to Liberia's Agricultural University at Fendell for students from member countries; graduates of the rice production course in particular have been an stimulus to rice growing competence in the region. U.S. training provided to key WARDA researchers has been without impact, since no trainees have yet returned, but a rice economics study undertaken with Stanford University's Food Research Institute has given important new scope to WARDA's interdisciplinary research. The project taught that donors should share common priorities with research organizations and that regional research organizations should be freed of excessive administrative burdens and helped in defining collective strategies and in improving - not substituting for - inadequate national scientific systems. Overall, WARDA's sensitivity to the political and administrative environments in its member countries makes it effective in exercising quality control and providing advisory backup services to research undertaken in its member countries. Several specific recommendations for WARDA action are included.