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

Rice in Côte d’Ivoire.
research can be particularly effective in improving
the welfare of rural groups at risk, it needs to
be explicitly structured and focused to deal with
complex gender issues.
Rice, environmental degradation,
and sustainable intensification
In highly populated areas of West Africa, rising
cropping intensity in fragile upland ecosystems
has already begun to degrade the resource base,
with environmental damage and loss in
production potential. Rice has a key role to play
in providing options for sustainable intensification.
Rice is uniquely well adapted to flooded
lowland ecosystems where the soils are least
fragile and best able to support continuous
cultivation. The development of profitable
lowland rice technologies is therefore a central
element in strategies to induce farmers to reduce
pressure on rapidly degraded uplands by shifting
cultivation to lowland ecosystems. Relative to
other cereals, rice also responds more to
improved management and to higher inputs of
nutrients, water control, and labor, and is thus
favored as production systems intensify.
Rice-growing environments
Rice in West Africa is grown in several ecosystems
and in a wide range of production systems.
The humid and subhumid
“continuum” environment
This continuum is composed of several
contiguous ecosystems in which rice can be
grown within the warm subhumid and warm
humid tropics of Africa.
Rainfed upland ecosystem
Rice in this ecosystem is sown on approximately
2.2 million ha, representing 48% of the total rice
area and 29% of regional production. Although
there is large scope for area expansion regionally,
in locations where access to good arable soils is
limited, expansion of upland rice cultivation can
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