Maclean et al. - 2002 - Rice almanac source book for the most important e

to be combined in a coherent and complementary
regional research program.
It is with this objective that WARDA has
developed the character of an “open center.” This
means that WARDA provides a permanent
institutional framework within which to attract,
focus, and facilitate the efforts of a range of
collaborators. The unifying factor is that all
partners contribute to solving priority regional
problems. While WARDA generally serves as a
catalyst to identify the priority themes and
partners for collaborative research, research
leadership in any given area is determined on the
basis of institutional comparative advantage.
Partnership with national agricultural
research and extension systems (NARES)
The goal of WARDA’s partnership with national
systems is to achieve the most cost-effective
means of developing and transferring new rice
technologies within the region as a whole.
WARDA views the regional rice science
infrastructure as an integrated and interdependent
system. Because agroecological environments
cut across political boundaries, technologies
developed in any single location are usually
transferable to far broader areas. The objectives
of WARDA’s partnership with NARES are to
achieve a more complementary and efficient
sharing of research tasks by allocating responsibilities
on the basis of comparative advantage,
and to maximize research spillover between
these systems and WARDA, and among the national
systems themselves.
The Reseau Ouest et Centre Africain du Riz
(ROCARIZ), a Rice Research and Development
Network for West and Central Africa, was created
in 2000 after in-depth consultations among
WARDA, the West and Central African Council
for Agricultural Research and Development
(WECARD/CORAF), national research systems,
and the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID). ROCARIZ is a successor network
to the highly successful WARDA/NARS
Rice Task Force Collaborative Mechanism for
rice research and development within the
subregion, which was supported financially by
USAID in 1991-97. ROCARIZ maintains the
task force structure with seven functional task
forces on mangrove swamps, rice breeding,
Sahel resource management, integrated pest
management, natural resource management, rice
economics, and technology transfer. ROCARIZ
finances small two-year research projects
through national scientists in member countries.
The technology transfer task force includes the
active participation of researchers, extension officers,
and end-users of research results.
ROCARIZ has established a forum—the Biennial
Regional Rice Research Review (4Rs)—for
reporting and publishing rice research and development
activities within the subregion. The principal
stakeholders of ROCARIZ are WARDA,
CORAF member countries, national research
systems, USAID, the private sector, and rice
farmers. ROCARIZ values its guiding principles
of trust, mutual respect, and joint ownership—
essential ingredients for a successful partnership
program. ROCARIZ is coordinated at WARDA
headquarters and is managed by a coordinator
under the guidance of a steering committee composed
of national scientists, the private sector,
development agents, and a WARDA representative.
WARDA’s genetic resources unit comprises
traditional genebank operations, but also the
International Network for Genetic Evaluation of
Rice in Africa (INGER-Africa). The genebank
activities have taken up a higher profile with the
successful use of the Oryza glaberrima rice species
in the development of NERICAs. Oryza
glaberrima and wild African species are priority
areas for collection, conservation, and
characterization. During the 1990s, INGER-Africa
became a demand-responsive network providing
new genetic material for NARES partners,
including nominations from the NARES
themselves (effectively allowing such material to
undergo regional adaptation testing). INGER-
Africa has also embarked upon studies of
biodiversity (variety portfolio) management by
farming communities.
In addition to traditional national partners,
WARDA has recently been expanding its partnership
mode to encompass the NGO community,
the private sector, regional universities, and
farmers’ organizations. In particular, a community-based
seed system has been promoted in
Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea in collaboration with
NARES, NGOs, private seed companies, and
farmers’ organizations.
Partnership with advanced research
institutions
Many institutions in the global research
community have strengths in specialized areas
that are highly complementary to WARDA and
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