Background
Rice, one of staple foods for millions of people, plays a significant role in the food system, and rice value chain building and enhancement especially in developing countries would contribute to the resilience of food systems.
Rice is the main food crop in many African countries. Africa produces around 60% of the rice the continent consumes, relying heavily on rice imports to fulfill the rest of the domestic demand. There are serious production and consumption gaps. Africa imports up to 17.5 million metric tons of rice in 2022, and this number is expected to keep increasing. South-South Cooperation can provide opportunities to mitigate the import dependence that many countries face and respond to domestic needs.
WFP Centre of Excellence for Rural Transformation (WFP China COE) prioritizes leveraging China’s knowledge and experience through South-South Cooperation to contribute to developing countries’ food security and food systems resilience. Rice value chain development is one of the prioritized thematic areas of South-South Cooperation by WFP China COE. In the past 4 years, policy-level consultations and field-level projects on rice value chain in Africa have been implemented, generating fruitful results including synergies for further policy dialogues and partnerships for technology transfer and experience exchange. WFP China COE is committed to continuous efforts on development of rice value chain, highlighting exchange between China and Africa, promoting more ground level engagement, motivating more partners and stakeholders, and create opportunities for knowledge sharing accordingly.
A series of initiatives and framework have already built a solid foundation for the establishment of China-Africa Rice Value Chain Initiative. In June 2019, the Joint Initiative on South-South Cooperation for Rice Value Chain Development in Africa was announced at the Seminar of China-Africa Ag-coop and Development by China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE), World Food Program (WFP), United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MARA), African Union (AU), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), during the first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, China.
The 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC, November 2021 in Dakar, Senegal) highly prioritized food storage and rice value chain, enhancing China-Africa cooperation.
On 23 September 2021, the United Nations Food Systems Summit served as a historic opportunity to empower all people to leverage the power of food systems to fuel the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and return on track to achieve SDGs by 2030s. As the anchor agency of Action Track 5, WFP underpins the ambitions on building resilience and mitigate shocks, understanding and addressing the drivers and root causes of food insecurity, strengthening national supply chains, supporting smallholder farmers, and reducing food loss and waste.
Since 2021, WFP China COE joined hands with the Regional Center of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) to facilitate knowledge sharing and resource mobilization on rice value chain development. In March 2021, WFP China COE and CERFAM launched the China Africa Rice Value Chain Development Project in C?te d'Ivoire under the Global South-South Development Centre Project, jointly initiated by UNOSSC and CICETE. The project achievements in C?te d'Ivoire resulted in further funding from BMGF for the China-Africa Rice Value Chain Initiative, enabling WFP China COE and CERFAM to scale up support for rice value chains in Western Africa, mainly in Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea, further promoting country-level engagement.
To create an enabling platform linking stakeholders from both China and Africa, WFP China COE has held three consecutive seminars on China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development. In June 2021, the first Seminar on China-Africa Rice Value Chain Enhancement was organized in Shaoxing. In September 2022, the second Seminar on China-Africa Rice Value Chain with a technical focus on rice processing, storage and quality control was held in Jiaxing. In June 2023, the third Seminar took place in Wuxi. Through South-South Cooperation dialogues, the Seminar facilitated experience exchange and expertise sharing on national food security and agricultural development for innovative solutions and good practices on rice value chain development.
The Seminar on China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development to be held in 2024 is a part of the Rice Value Chain Initiative implemented by WFP China COE and funded by BMGF and UNOSSC through Global SSC Development Initiative as a tool to facilitate policy dialogue and exchanges.
Rationale
China has a long history of rice cultivation. Particularly during the recent four decades of reform and opening up, the rice industry has achieved remarkable advancement and made great contributions to the overall economic development, agricultural transformation and poverty alleviation in China. China has accrued valuable experiences and significant comparative advantage in improved seed varieties, rice production and processing, technology and machineries, demonstration and promotion, industrial investment and marketization, etc. There is great complementarity and potential in China-Africa agricultural cooperation, especially in the rice value chain. Strong political commitments from leaders of both China and Africa were demonstrated to promote and enlarge China-Africa agricultural cooperation for food system enhancement in Africa so as to enable access by all, especially, by the vulnerable.
WFP emphasizes significantly on the smallholder farmers capacity enhancement and access to the market supportiveness. The Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS) programme guidance released in 2018 was structured on the development of four pathways that mirror the smallholder market access theory of change: inclusive aggregation, demand side, supply side, and enabling environment. In full alignment with SAMS strategy and the WFP PHLM Guidance in 2022, Value Chain Development for Smallholders is on top of WFP China COE’s agenda aiming to help increase farmers’ access to the market and improve their livelihoods.
The agricultural background of China and African countries are similar. They both rely on smallholder farmers. It is of significance to leverage new knowledge, investments, and public-private partnerships that can help Africa advance rice productivity, and improve quality, processing, and distribution. Such a cooperation could benefit smallholders and others in low-resource communities to have access to improved inputs and modern technologies for post-harvest management.
BMGF highly prioritizes the wellbeing of smallholder farmers and rice value chain development in Africa. In 2022, BMGF funded a feasibility study implemented by the Syngenta Foundation and Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) and Derftdan Resources Ltd. on rice value chain in Nigeria. The study identified causes of the low efficiency of the rice value chain, concluded the funding gaps and investment opportunities, and provided strategic recommendations drawing from good practices and experiences from China. It recommended private sector engagement, sector specific rice policy and advocacy platform development, and strong knowledge transfer mechanism, fitting in the objective of the China- Africa Rice Value Chain Seminar.
Realizing unleashing Africa’s full agricultural potential will require significant investment, especially on rice value chain development. Sub-Saharan Africa will need eight times more fertilizer, six times more improved seed, at least $8 billion of investment in basic post-harvest treatment and storage (not including cold-chain investments), and as much as $65 billion in irrigation to fulfil its agricultural promise. Much investment will also be needed in basic infrastructure, such as roads, ports, and electricity, plus improvements in policies and regional trade flows for enabling environment to allow the value chain development while benefiting smallholders of rice growers.
In this context, the 4th Seminar on China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development will be organized to expand the platform for innovative financing, expanded investment and resourceful partnership among stakeholders on China-Africa rice value chain development. Co-organizers of the event will be WFP China COE, UNOSSC, BMGF, National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration (NAFRA), in collaboration with CICETE, Depart of International Cooperation of MARA, China Africa Development Fund (CAD Fund), and Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), tentatively.
Objectives
This Seminar serves as a pivotal platform for linking partners and motivating pathways to enhance cooperation along rice value chain. Through South-South Cooperation, it aims to establish an inclusive platform for all stakeholders relevant to China-Africa Rice Value Chain.
After three years of policy dialogues on rice value chain development, themed on storage, processing, nutrition, and supply chain, experience and knowledge exchange, that have transformed into tangible results, projects and partnerships on the ground, this year the event will be focusing on fostering partnerships and boosting investment.
● Foster inclusive partnerships between a diverse set of stakeholders from both China and Africa by facilitating structured and open dialogues and engaging stakeholders ranging from government, financial institutes. thinktanks to private investors, paving way for a more integrated and effective cooperation.
● Actively promote innovative financing and investment opportunities for China-Africa Rice Value Chain by presenting actionable investment prospects and showcasing successful case studies, encouraging potential investors to engage with and contribute to the development of the rice sector.
● Technical study tour, especially for oversea participants, will be arranged accordingly.
Event arrangement
1. Event Format
The Seminar will be organised offline. In house discussion will be around one and a half day. A half day field visit will be included.
2. Participants
Participants include government agencies, UN agencies, academia, NGOs, and enterprises.
Partners from African countries including Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania will be invited to attend the meeting. Embassies of the above African countries in Beijing will be invited as well.
Representatives from WFP Headquarter, Regional Bureau, Country Offices and Centres of Excellence, African regional institutions, and relevant UN Agencies will be invited to the on-site event.
International financial institutes (IFIs), such as China Development Bank, Import & Export Bank, Africa Development Bank, World Bank, China Agricultural Development Bank, New Development Bank, Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, will be invited. Private sectors that have been active in investing Africa in agriculture (eg, private sectors related to China-Africa Business Council) and local NGOs working on rice production, harvest, processing, marketing and trade, and other relevant areas will be invited.
Agenda
