South Korea will sign an accord next week with 8 African countries to aid in upscaling rice production and reduce reliance on importation, as stated by Chung Hwang-Keun, the minister for Agriculture in South Korea. This is in line with the South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol’s promise to restructure his country’s international commitment.
The minister said the “K-Rice Belt Project”, will enable his country to construct facilities in 8 African countries namely; Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda, and Kenya to manufacture rice seeds that are more appropriate for the local environment and have yields two to three times better than local types.
He said, “It was when food security was a global issue. Rice prices had almost doubled due to supply chain disruptions,” making reference to how the importation of food had diminished the African nations’ foreign trade deposits.
Despite rice being a staple food in West Africa, domestic production can only supply 60% of demand according to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This makes Africa vulnerable to international price fluctuation and market disturbances.
South Korea is looking at disbursing about 77 million dollars, an equivalent of 100 billion won on the food project across the next 4 years, with an aim of spreading 10,000 tons of rice seeds each year from 2027.
Chung stated that “President Yoon Suk Yeol has been very clear about this, that we should come forward to help because we were the ones getting help during the difficult times”.
He further revealed that South Korea has shown capacity by providing rice to about 90% of local demand, however, there is still a major reliance on some other food imports.
As part of the accordance, the Agriculture minister of the 8 African nations is to visit Seoul on 10th of this month.
The United Nations World Food Programme approved the initiative. Marian Sunhee Yun, the director of WFP Korea Office, expressed delight saying “The K-Rice project will bring outstanding rice varieties and hope to the small farmers in Africa suffering from the climate crisis”.
