By Deborah Olaoluwa
A delegation from the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme and its partners, led by the Sasakawa Africa Association, visited project sites in Covè, Central Benin Republic, on June 10, 2025, to evaluate rice farmers’ adoption of agricultural innovations.
The evaluation visit was organised within the project “Improving rice productivity by decarbonising cultivation for 12,000 hectares of irrigated paddy fields in the Republic of Benin.”
The delegation observed changes in practices, assessed the impacts on yields, and identified the challenges faced by producers. It also noted a growing adoption of new techniques among rice growers.
Among the innovations are “urea briquettes,” high-yielding rice varieties (Orylux 6 and Faro 67), moisture control, and soil decarbonisation. The results show higher yields compared to traditional methods, encouraging neighbouring producers to adopt these practices, notably through the exchange of more than 800 kg of Faro 67 seeds.
TAAT and its partners are thus helping to improve the yields and incomes of Beninese rice farmers while scaling up these solutions.
The Japanese government financed the project through the African Development Bank under the Policy and Human Resource Development Grant (PHRDG). The project is already enhancing rice productivity by decarbonising cultivation.
This comprises practices that reduce biogenic methane from rice cultivation and promote the culture of resource efficiency by reducing consumption and improving the conservation of irrigation water, chemical fertilisers, and energy for cultivation and harvesting, as well as farm waste processing, reducing waste in the food supply.
The technologies usually promoted under the decarbonised farming practices create the benefits of not only offsetting emissions but also restoring degraded soils, enhancing crop production, reducing pollution by minimising erosion and nutrient runoff, purifying surface and groundwater, and increasing microbial activity and soil biodiversity.
