abstract:New Rice for Africa ("NERICA") is an interspecific cultivar of rice developed by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) to improve the yield of African rice varieties. Although 240 million people in West Africa rely on rice as the primary source of food energy and protein in their diet, the majority of this rice is imported, at a cost of USD 1 billion.
Thecentershave had a number of successesin recent years, developing, among other things, drought-tolerantcornforAfricaand a newvarietyofricethat cantolerate episodes of flooding.