The Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) and the Bette Rice Initiative Asia (BRIA) held its second cross-continental learning exchange on 21– 25 August for west and east African CARI partner countries. The main objective of the exchange was to provide participants from Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania with insights and a better understanding of the Thai rice value chain and its stakeholders. Known as the world’s top rice exporter, Thailand serves as a role model for the Asian know-how in producing, trading and setting policies can be valuable benchmarks for fighting deficiencies in the African rice industry.
The participants were given guided tours and extensive discussion time at several locations in different provinces in Thailand including the Klang Community Rice Centre in Ubon Ratchathani Province, which works together with Olam in order to improve their rice production based on the Sustainable Rice Platform standard. The visit to this community-based farmers’ association gave the opportunity to discuss challenges and recommendations concerning rice farming practices, post-harvest techniques, and packaging as well as the management and organization of the farmers’ group, highly relevant topics for the visitors from Africa. Other sites included the Raitong Organics Farm Co. Ltd., Ubon Ratchathani Rice Research Center, and the Office of Commodity Standards of the Ministry of Commerce.
By learning more about rice cultivation in Thailand and exchanging with different organizations along the Thai rice value chain, ideas and expressions were gained, which left the participants optimistic in being able to improve rice production processes in their home countries. BRIA and CARI are looking forward to continuing the cooperation and support of mutual learning and knowledge exchange in the future.
Read the full story: Better Rice Initiative Asia Monthly Update September 2017
