Project launched to develop the next generation of new rice varieties for sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia

IRRI
and AfricaRice jointly launched the Japan-funded project on “Developing the
next generation of new rice varieties for Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast
Asia.” The eastern and southern African launch of this project took place on 24
Apr 2010, in Kirundo Province of Burundi.



The
launch was attended by scientists from IRRI, AfricaRice and 38 national
research and extension partners from

Project to mitigate climate change impact on rice disease resistance in East Africa launched

East
Africa and mainly the Great Lakes region are among the most vulnerable regions
to climate change in Africa. Studies indicate that climatic change will induce
increasing temperature and declining rainfall in East Africa with frequent
periods of drought which may intensify crop disease occurrence and severity.
Also by impacting on both pests and host plants, climate change may enable some

AfricaRice rated as Outstanding by World Bank

As
part of its annual evaluation of 15 international Centers belonging to CGIAR)
based on performance-linked measurements, the World Bank announced in Jun 2010
that it has rated AfricaRice as 'Outstanding,' in the 2009 Performance
Measurement exercise. This is the highest of three performance categories.





The
assessment was based on a number of criteria that included results, impacts,