East Africa as Rice Provider

Chronicle (Levin), 31 December 1949, Page 7

East Africa as Rice Provider

Large-scale meehanised. production of rice in East. and Oentral Africa with a view to the, eventual exporj trade is recommended by the East African iiice Mission report published on December 22. . Primarily the report eraphasises the need for fresh eft'orts to-raise the standards of living in' the Colonial Eiupirt vvithout recourse to outside food supplies. The mission believes rice expan sion can "best 'be achieved by raisiiig the standards of existing peasant agriculture and the reelaination of virgin swamjj. The mission eonsisted of Geralcl Lacey, former chief engineer, Indian Publie Works Department and ffoberl Watson, former Director of Agriculture in Burma. The areas concerned are Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia. It is pointed out that there is a great necd for long-term planning or rice production since popuiations are increasing and the exportabJe surplus from Burma, Siam and Indo-China has dvvindled from the prewar figure of five or six million tons to just on two and a half million tons. Particular attention is- drawn to the food potential of swamplands in Northern Rhodesia known as Dambos. These areas are' almost entirely uncropped and ^serve merely as grazing grounds. for wild animals and cattle. The'development of the swamp land would relieve pressure on higher lands whose productivity is jeopardised by the shifting cultivation and soil impoverishment. The mission urges the setting up in Tanganyika of a Central African rice research st.ation to serve all the areas. The Overseas Food Corporation is urgetl to take part in the scheme and to until ise the swamp areas to be found alongside the groundnut acreages. The difficulties are numerous. Shortage of trained staif is considered more serious than the shortage of funds. There is need for more sufveys, exploitation of hydroelectric resources, re i-ording of water levels, etc. A colonial correspondent writPs: "Since the report was written the fol- ... ---

lovving developments have occurred. In Northern Rhodesia a survey team is coilecting hydrological data in and. near Lake Bangwelu, in Nyasaland tliq Colonial Development Corporation is grow ing rice on a fairly large scale in Lim pasa Dambo, ineehanisation experiments at Ndundu in Tanganyika are being intensified and the conferenee recentlv held at Tahora, Tanganyika had endorsed many of the Mission 's recommendations."