Africa Region Findings & Good Practice Infobriefs

1998-12, World Bank

In Guinea, improving the productivity of upland rice is a key challenge for the national agricultural services. Though rice is the main staple in Guinea, low yields make the country highly dependent on rice imports that it can ill afford. While the national agricultural research system (Institute de Recherche Agronomique de Guinee, IRAG), did not have improved technology available, the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), located in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire, had made a major breakthrough. It was developing inter-specific rice varieties that combined the best characteristics of the high-yielding Oryza Sativa varieties of Asian origin with those of the hardy Oryza Glaberrima varieties indigenous to Africa. Though the results looked promising, the normal approach of first testing new varieties at research stations and only then releasing them for on-farm trials and then to extension will have taken years. To speed up the process, Guinea's national extension service (Service National de la Promotion Rurale et de la Vulgarisation) teamed up with IRAG in a pilot program that brought promising varieties from WARDA concurrently to evaluations on IRAG stations and to on-farm trials. The participatory pilot program was supported by the World Bank and the Special Program for African Agricultural Research (SPAAR).

1998-08, World Bank

The Livestock Sector Rehabilitation Project, operational from 1986 through 1995, was seen as essential in facilitating the new government's implementation of its economic strategy when it came to office in 1984. Previous government policy had required that 10 percent of all herds be sold at a fixed price through the State Cattle Marketing Agency, encobe. This caused many herders to emigrate and hide their animals in forests or outside the country. In addition, poor animal health represented a severe constraint to agricultural productivity and growth on which approximately 30 percent of the country's rural population (160,000 families) depended. All the livestock sector reforms took place within the context of a major overhaul of the National Livestock Directorate.

1998-05, World Bank

The Guinea National Agricultural Services Project's overall development objective is to improve nationwide agricultural productivity and production, incomes of farmers and food security. Initiated in 1996, the food security component of this project was undertaken in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization's Special Program for Food Security (SPFS). SPFS, approved by the FAO Board in June 1994, had the objective of helping countries with low revenues and a food deficit to rapidly increase their food production in order to contribute to food security. The SPFS strategy is based on pilot projects to identify existing technical assistance packages and the intensification of their application while eliminating the institutional obstacles to their adoption. The pilot phase will be followed by an extension of five years during which technical solutions, policies and investment programs will be implemented to strengthen the national capacity necessary for increased food security.