World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 44

How Promising is the Rice Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa?

The case of Uganda: The
importance of the improved production
practices can also be clearly seen from
the case study of basically rain-fed areas
in the Eastern Region in Uganda (see
Table 3), as reported by Kijima, Ito, and
Otsuka (2011; 2012). Note that Bugiri
and Mayuge were sites of a participatory
rice training program offered by Japan
International
Cooperation
Agency
(JICA), whereas no such training was
offered in Bukedea and Pallisa. Also,
note that the demonstration of a simple
irrigation scheme was implemented
only in Bugiri. Roughly speaking, the
difference between Bugiri and Mayuge
is due primarily to the presence of
irrigation in the former, whereas a major
part of the difference between Burigicum-Mayuge and Bekedea-cum-Palissa
is due mainly to the implementation of
a rice training program in the former
areas, even though some yield differences
can be attributed to differences in agroclimate. In Bugiri, where Asian-type
MVs are adopted in more than 40% of
paddy fields, the yield and the number of
improved production practices adopted
are positively correlated, indicating that
MVs and improved production practices
are complementary. Considering that
chemical fertilizer is not applied in
Uganda, the yield of more than 4 ton/ha
is impressively high, indicating the high
potential of rice yields in this country due
to relatively high precipitation and fertile
soil. It is likely, however, that such high
yield is unsustainable, unless fertilizer

is applied to maintain soil fertility.8 The
yield in Mayuge is reasonably high if all
the four improved production practices
are adopted. In contrast, the yields are
much lower and variable regardless of
the adoption of improved practices in
Bekedea and Palissa. Even if the improved
production practices are adopted,
whether they are adopted properly can
be questioned, as these areas were not
covered by the training program. The
average yield in these two sites is 1.8
ton/ha, which is not low compared with
other rain-fed areas in SSA. A critically
important finding of the Uganda case
study is that the rice training program
encouraged the adoption of improved
production practices and improved the
profitability of rice farming (Kijima, Ito,
and Otsuka 2012).

It must be pointed out that the
rain-fed area in Uganda is located at
the bottom of a valley. Although it is
rain-fed, its production environment is
favorable for lowland rice production,
because the soil is fertile and moist.
In my observations, such production
environments are abundant in SSA, and
most have been unused until recently.
Probably for rice production such rainfed area is more favorable than the rainfed areas in Asia, most of which are
located in flat areas. The Northern Region
in Ghana is another example of a rainfed area at the bottom of a valley with
mild slopes, which has huge potential to
increase the rice production.

8

In the Doho irrigation scheme located in the Eastern Region, the rice yield is about 3 tons per
hectare, even though double cropping of rice has been practiced for a few decades without chemical
fertilizer (Nakano and Otsuka 2011).

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