Assessing rice production sustainability performance indicators and their gaps in twelve sub-Saharan African countries

Abstract

Highlights Five indicators for rice production and their gaps were assessed in 12 countries. The indicators include yield, profit, labor productivity, N- and P-use efficiencies. Mean yield varied: 2.5–5.6 t ha −1 in irrigated and 0.6–2.3 t ha −1 in rainfed. There were yield gaps of 29–69 % and profit gaps of 10–89 %. Less than 50 % of farmers had desirable ranges in N- or P-use efficiencies.

Econometric Analysis of the Determinants of Rice Farming Systems Choice in Côte d’Ivoire

“…Paddy production has become the main source of income for some farmers in the country. Therefore, those who cultivate rice for commercial purposes (market-oriented rice farmers) mostly choose the irrigated rice system because, according to scientists and previous research (Arouna, Devkota, et al, 2021; Dossou-Yovo et al, 2020; Niang et al, 2017; Tanaka et al, 2017), this production system has a high paddy yield compared to the other two RFSs. While the majority of rice farmers practicing the RURF grow rice for the purpose of family consumption.…”

“…Indeed, the rise in rice prices during the global food crisis has caused economic instability and social unrest in several SSA countries, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire. In the aftermath of this crisis, several SSA countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, made a commitment to improving rice production by adopting documents entitled “National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS)” (Arouna et al, 2021). As part of the implementation of the NRDS, the state-owned institution (National Rice Development Agency [NRDA]) in charge of promoting the rice sector has divided the country into 48 rice-growing areas.…”

“…Some studies have assessed the potential resources for rice production, characterized the RFSs, and provided an overview of the challenges and technical opportunities in developing RFSs in SSA (Balasubramanian et al, 2007; Defoer et al, 2004). Other studies have also assessed rice self-sufficiency (Arouna, Fatognon, et al, 2021) and rice production sustainability in SSA (Arouna, Devkota, et al, 2021), including Côte d’Ivoire. Few studies like that of Ozaki and Sakurai (2020) have focused on the determinants of the choice of RFSs.…”

“…A number of studies have assessed the sustainability of these RFSs (Arouna, Devkota, et al, 2021;Devkota et al, 2019;Roy et al, 2014Roy et al, , 2016. This sustainability assessment is mainly based on the "Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation and Performance Indicators (PIs)" developed by the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP, 2020).…”

Performance of Nigerian Rice Farms from 2010 to 2019: A Stochastic Metafrontier Approach

“…Little evidence exists on the growth performance of rice farms in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of extant studies has only focused on the technical efficiency of rice farms using cross-sectional data [7,[21][22][23]. These studies have shown that technical efficiency in rice farms was as high as 0.55-0.86, even though rice yields were low [7,22,23].…”