What we do

Our projects aims to support the actors in the rice value chain in a holisitic manner. On the following page you can read insightful stories and reports, highlighting our continuing work on technology and innovation, gender, our partner cooperation, our impact and efforts to make climate friendly rice a reality. You can also read about the various events and happenings that have taken place through the CARI project.

Impact

Call For Applications - Joint Matching Grant Fund (MGF) for ERO and MOVE – Rice Mills

The ECOWAS Rice Observatory (ERO) and MOVE-CARI wish to announce a call for proposals for support from their Rice Matching Fund concept. The transformation through strong Rice Business Linkages.

The Matching Fund is a co-funding mechanism for engaging private sector enterprises to co-invest in activities that strengthen the rice value chains in West Africa. There are two different funding streams from

Impact

GIZ-MOVE Collaborates with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council for SME/GTA loop Training (Kopie)

SME/GTA loop Training in NEPC Hall Maitama, Abuja.

The initiation of the SME Business Training and Coaching session marks a crucial milestone in the journey towards empowering SMEs in the ECOWAS region. Through such collaborative efforts and innovative initiatives like the SME-Loop, the project aims to unlock the full potential of SMEs, driving sustainable growth and fostering inclusive prosperity throughout the

Impact

RiceAdvise Lite and WeedManager Training of Trainers: An approach to SMART Agriculture

RiceAdvise Lite and WeedManager

RiceAdvise Lite and WeedManager are digital applications developed to support and advise rice farmers on how to undertake management practices on their rice farms, geared towards obtaining high and quality

Impact

GIZ-MOVE Collaborates with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council for SME/GTA loop Training

SME/GTA loop Training in NEPC Hall Maitama, Abuja.

Impact

Rice Miller Business Academy

Developing Profitable Farmer Services Training

On March 20–21, 2024, a two-day training session titled "Developing Profitable Farmer Services" was convened by the MOVE project and SENSE Economic Consult, bringing together key stakeholders in Ghana's rice value chain, including millers, farmer cooperatives, and extension services. The objective

Climate Smart

HACCP TRAINING ORGANISED BY MOVE-CARI FOR RICE MILL STAFF IN CÔTE D'IVOIRE

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)

The Market-Oriented Value Chains for Jobs and Growth in the ECOWAS Region (MOVE) project is a fusion of two former GIZ projects, ComCashew and CARI. MOVE supports the growth in competitivity of the cashew and rice value chains. For rice, six ECOWAS countries are supported by MOVE-CARI (Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone).

Cooperation

Nigeria to achieve Rice Self-Sufficiency by 2030

Launch of a 10year National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS ll) and Competitive African Rice Platform (CARP) Nigeria Chapter, supported by GIZ-MOVE Programme

In a bid to promote, competitiveness and sustainability of the rice value chain in Nigeria, the Market-oriented value chains for jobs and growths in ECOWAS (GIZ -MOVE) programme supported the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) in launching the National rice development strategy (NRDS II) and the Competitive African Rice Platform (CARP) in Nigeria.

Impact

Economics of Rice Parboiling in Northern Nigeria

Impact Study. Deep Dive.

Given the important role parboiling training plays in the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI), CARI commissioned an impact study on the economics of rice parboiling in the following Nigerian states: Jigawa, Kano and Kebbi as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

While the main objective of the study was to assess if and how these reached parboilers economically benefit from the trainings, initial attempts are also made at understanding the degree to which these women are empowered beyond mere economic benefits.

Technologie & Innovation, Technology & Innovation

What is Parboiling and how does it work?

A visual journey to a Women’s parboiling cooperative in Burkina Faso

In comparison to whole grain rice, parboiled rice is enriched with more than half of its original nutritional content. This process - called parboiling - allows the minerals, vitamins and nutrients housed in rice husks to be absorbed into the final rice grains. The parboiling process is performed most of the times through women cooperatives. Cooperatives empower women by providing them with opportunities to earn additional income.

Technology & Innovation

Rice planting

A more demanding job than you might think

Preparing a nursery bed is one of the first steps in the rice cultivation. This process takes more patience and time as one would assume. Follow us to a rice field in Burkina Faso to learn more about the work.

Better together: The promise of cooperatives

Insights from Rice Cooperatives in Burkina Faso

Cooperatives are considered to have a great potential for the Agricultural Supply Chains. But why, how and what role does CARI play?

Cooperation, Impact

The ECOWAS Rice Offensive

Collaboration and partnership for working towards rice self-sufficiency in West Africa

Low yields, weak processing and poor value chain linkages characterize the rice value chain in Africa. The above are obstacles that need to be overcome, to lessen import dependency and to support multiple African countries in becoming self-sufficient.

Insights from our Partners

Women as protagonists of change

To mark the 2021 International Women’s Day, WOFAN rewarded 300 smallholder women farmers from Dogon Bauchi and Samaru, Zaria, Kaduna state, Nigeria, with input and processing equipment, to motivate them to take their development into their own hands.

Read more … Insights from our Partners

Climate Smart, Gender, Technology & Innovation

Bridging the Digital Gender Divide

Advancing Adoption to Climate Change through ICT Solutions for Nigerian Rice Farmers – a Changemaker’s Story

For years, this divide was assumed to be symptomatic of technical challenges: The thinking went that women would catch up with men when the world had cheaper devices and lower connectivity prices, due to the limited purchasing power and financial independence of women compared with men.

Cooperation, Technology & Innovation

Grow digital

Baseline Survey on Rice Farmers' Affinity towards ICT solutions in West Africa

The goal of this survey was to explore the smartphone penetration rate amongst rice farmers in Nigeria and Burkina Faso and attempt to understand their affinity towards ICT solutions.

Media Coverage of our Activities

CARI's model has gained much interest internationally. Read what renowned media outlets report about CARI in French, Spanisch and German.

Cooperation

Rice is our Business

A short introduction to CARI

CARI's main objective is to increase the competitiveness of small-scale rice producers, millers and other actors along the rice value-chain and achieve lasting reduction of poverty in Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Tanzania. But what does the work in these countries entail?

Spill Over Effect

How curiosity leads to yield and quality increase

Bumpy roads, small villages and elephant grass, line the route from Accra down to the rural area called Fievie in the Volta Region. Only one hundred kilometres east of Ghana´s capital, you will find rice fields stretching across hundreds of hectares.

CARI at the AGRF 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda

Collaboration and partnership for working towards rice self-sufficiency in Africa

Lead. Measure. Grow. This year’s theme of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Kigali, Rwanda aimed at enabling new pathways to turn smallholder famers into sustainable agribusinesses.

Cooperation, Impact, Technology & Innovation

Follow us along the rice value chain in Nigeria

Let us take you on a virtual fieldtrip to Nigeria ...

Enjoy a descriptive and informative video on CARI's work in Nigeria

Climate Smart, Cooperation, Technology & Innovation

RiceAdvice

Advice on field-specific rice management practices

The Japanese-funded ‘RiceAdvice’ App project, benefits over 16,000 African farmers: "Thanks to a 1-year project supported by the Government of Japan, 200 trained service providers have helped more than 16,000 rice farmers in Mali and Nigeria benefit from ‘RiceAdvice’ ... "

South-South Exchange:

A visit to Thailand

Rice is one of the leading food crops in the world, and rice production in Asia is very advanced. We visited our Thai colleagues in 2017 to ask the question what we all can learn from each other.

A Framework for Promoting the Rice Sector in Burkina Faso

7th Stakeholder Conference in the rice sector

An important meeting of stakeholders in the rice sector opened on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, in Ouagadougou under the chairmanship of the representative of the Minister of Agriculture and Water Development, Moussa Maïga.