Description

Rice is one of the strategic food commodities in Africa. To mitigate the risk of food insecurity in Côte d'Ivoire and reduce its dependence on external sources, the government has established hydro-agricultural facilities across the country. However, these initiatives, such as the one from Nanan to Yamoussoukro, have not delivered satisfactory yields per hectare. In the irrigated rice system, it is possible to carry out two or even three cropping cycles per year. Despite this, the consistently low yields lead to a decline in the economic income of producers and are a major cause of the gradual abandonment of rice cultivation by some farmers in favor of other crops. This research addresses the issue of low yields per hectare in irrigated rice cultivation across the country. How can we not speak of failure when considering the large sums of money spent by the government to create these rice-growing perimeters? How did this decline occur? Faced with this unfortunate reality, we undertook this study with the goal of improving rice yields on these perimeters to enable farmers to earn sufficient income to meet their needs. To achieve this objective, we decided to: (i) determine the performance indicators of the perimeter, namely efficiency and productivity, and identify drainage issues; (ii) monitor the management of fertilizers and the agricultural calendar; (iii) analyze the governance of the perimeter by COPRORIZ; (iv) strengthen COPRORIZ's technical and organizational capacities through the rehabilitation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage networks; and (v) establish a monitoring and evaluation system using decision support tools. Thus, this study not only helped identify the problems hindering expected productivity in irrigated rice cultivation but also provided decision support tools for the sustainable management of the perimeter. It proposes solutions to address the observed poor performance and is testing technologies for rice cultivation and strategies for developing an integrated crop calendar.