Hybrid Rice in Africa: Challenges and Prospects

(eds M.C.S. Wopereis et al.) 173 Since the early 1990s, several other countries (Bangladesh, Egypt, India and Vietnam) have developed and introduced hybrid rice technology to their farmers. The availability of adequately trained human resources is an essential prerequisite for developing and using hybrid rice technology. Hybrid rice breeding uses several concepts, skills and procedures that are strikingly different from those used for ‘traditional’ inbred rice breeding (Virmani et al., 1997). During the first decade of the 2000s, several African countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda) started to evaluate and cultivate rice hybrids from China. Only Egypt has succeeded in developing a hybrid rice breeding programme and produces Egyptian hybrids on a commercial scale. Grain yields obtained with hybrids have been in the order of 12–14 tonnes per hectare (Bastawisi et al., 2003). The programme developed a seed production system for the multiplication of cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines (A/B) and hybrid rice (A/R). Cropping practices and recommendations for CMS multiplication, hybrid seed production and hybrid rice cultivation were developed by the national programme. In addition, the programme features a special strategy to develop Introduction