The K-rice belt: Seeds for self-sufficiency?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 6 December 2023
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Could Africa reduce its dependency on imported rice with the help of South Korea?
The continent's appetite for rice is growing fast at over 6% per year. And even though rice is grown in about 40 out of 54 countries in Africa, the production only covers about 60% of the demand. This results in 14 to 15 million tonnes of rice being imported each year costing over $6bn.
To remedy this, a new rice variety was developed in co-operation with South Korea: ISRIZ-7 and ISRIZ-8. These high yield rice varieties were bred from the very rice that is credited with bringing self-sufficiency in rice to South Korea in the '70s. Earlier this year 10 African nations launched the ‘Korean Rice Belt’ project to improve rice yields in participating countries.
David Cann looks into the rice co-operation between South Korea and African countries, speaking to the South Korean agricultural minister and farmers in Senegal and The Gambia.
Presenter/producer: David Cann
(Photo: A handful of ISRIZ rice seeds. Credit: Rural Development Administration)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Something mysterious plagues County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland |
| 0:03.7 | and its legendary Gaelic football team. |
| 0:06.1 | Sometimes I think there's something sinister going on. |
| 0:09.4 | I believe in the curse. |
| 0:10.7 | I think it's real. |
| 0:11.6 | Listen to the curious tale of the Mayo Curse |
| 0:14.3 | on Amazing Sports Stories from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:17.9 | Search for amazing sports stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:27.6 | Hello and Anjohnasimica. |
| 0:29.6 | I'm David Ken and today on Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:33.6 | I want to talk about rice. |
| 0:36.0 | Crucial staple crop for more than half of the world's population. |
| 0:39.9 | We practically eat it in every meal. Most people eat it twice or three times a day. So it is very |
| 0:45.4 | important staple food. I don't think we can move on without rice. But with more than 90% of the |
| 0:52.5 | global production being limited to Asia, |
| 0:55.3 | many African countries are struggling to reduce their dependency on imported rice |
| 0:59.6 | and become self-sufficient. |
| 1:01.7 | If you don't have a very good seed, production target is always low. |
| 1:06.3 | So we're growing the same rice that we plant for the previous years. |
| 1:11.9 | So it's not making us to get a very high yield. |
| 1:15.5 | To remedy this, a new hybrid rice has been developed in cooperation with South Korea. |
| 1:25.5 | Isri 6 and 7 were born through hybridizing Korean Tongill rice with native African rice. |
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