The Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice) and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) have signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly advance rice productivity, strengthen food and nutrition security, and reduce poverty across Africa.

The agreement brings together two of the continent’s leading agricultural institutions —AfricaRice’s world-class rice research and breeding expertise, and AATF’s proven track record in scaling agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers across 32 African countries.

Under the partnership, both organisations will collaborate to improve rice value chains, expand farmers’ access to improved rice varieties — including hih-yielding hybrids — and promote sustainable, productivity-enhancing practices from seed to market. Key areas of joint action include quality seed production and distribution, good agricultural practices, mechanisation, decision-support tools for efficient input use, and rice processing technologies.

The Director General of AfricaRice, Dr. Baboucarr Manneh, highlighted the partnership’s potential to close the gap between science and impact: “Through this partnership, we will work together with AATF to develop and promote mechanised tools and agricultural equipment to reduce drudgery in rice production, improve processing efficiency, and enhance the quality of locally produced rice.”

On his part, the Executive Director of AATF, Dr. Canisius Kanangire, said: “We stand at a crossroads in Africa’s food production journey, where population growth, climate change, and declining agricultural productivity continue to threaten food and nutrition security. By investing in agricultural innovations, we have a unique opportunity to transform African agriculture into a powerful driver of economic growth.”

The MoU positions AfricaRice’s research pipeline and AATF’s public-private partnership model as complementary forces in Africa’s push toward rice self-sufficiency — a goal that has gained significant political and financial momentum following the $1.54b in investment pledges made at the recent West Africa Rice Investment Roundtable in Accra.