Rice Biodiversity Center for Africa

Background

The Rice Biodiversity Center for Africa (RBCA) holds the largest collection of African rice in the world and the largest rice collection in Africa with almost 22,000 accessions in an ultra-modern infrastructure. The facility has the capacity to conserve under optimal conditions, up to 60,000 rice accessions. The rice genetic resources housed in RBCA are key to developing new varieties adapted to African agro-ecologies.

Vision

The vision of the RBCA is to provide leadership and scientific expertise in the collection, conservation, management, and sustainable use of the rice genetic resources in Africa for research, breeding, and education.

Mission

The overall mission is to increase the productivity and profitability of the rice sector in Africa by conserving, securing, analyzing, and making unique rice genetic diversity available for breeding to develop higher-yielding and climate-resilient varieties with preferred end-use quality traits in sub-Saharan Africa.

Mandates of the RBCA include

(i)  managing routine genebank operations in accordance with the CGIAR genebank’s performance targets on germplasm availability, germplasm distribution, safety backup, passport data completeness index (PDCI), and quality management system (QMS); (ii) conducting scientific studies using rice genetic resources on gene discovery, donor identification to promote germplasm use; (iii) serving as a showcase of and raising public awareness on rice biodiversity; (iv) sharing resources, knowledge, and expertise with the national genebanks in Africa to advance scientific research in the continent; and (v) promoting collection and conservation of rice biodiversity in Africa