Inauguration of board members of the Competitive African Rice Platform in Nigeria & Orientation of the Technical Working Committees

We are excited for our MD who is part of the result-oriented CARI-GIZ driven team that worked to establish the Competitive African Rice Platform (CARP) in Nigeria and the chairperson of the Markets, Trade and SRP Standards Technical Committee. We were informed that it was a great feat to have progressed with speed to establish and inaugurate the CARP board in less than one year after the 1^st national working group consultation on sustainable rice platform (SRP). She beleives it would spurs them on  to work even harder!  CARP is the 1^st national rice stakeholder platform that would be driven by data. CARP would coordinate activities of actors in the rice value chain to achieve the objectives of government policies targeted at increased rice production, local sufficiency and export, including engagement of relevant regional bodies and development partners, encouraging research and development, ensuring  interconnectivity and strengthening public-private partnerships. The team is committed to working hard to achieve results in the shortest possible time and has advocacy on the front burner. The 2-day meeting of CARP on 19^th-20^th May, 2022 in Abuja was for the inauguration of board members and orientation of the technical working committees. CARP has deployed a structured approach that involves establishment of the CARP board and 4 technical committees that would provide technical inputs to drive its activities namely: i) R&D, Mechanization and Input Systems; ii) Finance & Donor Alignments; iii) Resilience, Gender, Youth and MLE (monitoring learning & evaluation) and iv) Markets, Trade and SRP Standards.  The roles of the technical working committees have been scoped, themes determined, activities prioritized and work started within a structured operational system that is sustainable and would help realize the desired benefits of government policies  including food safety, food security, job creation, economic empowerment particularly of women and the youth, local sufficiency of rice, export and diversification of the national economy.