Africa: Headline

New Vision: Uganda's rice experts are to attend the Africa Rice Congress in Bamako, Mali to present the country’s success story in rice production. The team leader for the cereal programme at the National Agricultural Research Organisation, Dr. Geoffrey Asea, on Monday told The New Vision that eight Ugandan rice experts will showcase two new rice varieties. “The development of the Nerica rice varieties earned Uganda accolades and it has boosted the country’s rice production from 4,000 hectares in 2002 to over 50,000 hectares in 2007,” he said. The new varieties have big grains, are drought and disease resistant and have higher yields. As a result Uganda currently produces 170,000 metric tonnes of rice annualy although the domestic consumption stands at 200,000 tonnes.

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