{"id":1743,"date":"2020-01-16T19:45:51","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T19:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seedsystemsgroup.org\/?p=1743"},"modified":"2020-01-16T19:45:51","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T19:45:51","slug":"guinea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/2020\/01\/16\/guinea\/","title":{"rendered":"Guinea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Driving with\nour host and national consultant, Mr Ibrahima Diallo, from the capital city of\nConakry to the agricultural research station of Koba, situated 150km further\nNorth, in maritime or lower Guinea, what strikes a newcomer like myself is the\nnatural beauty, tropical forest, and of course you get just a glimpse of the\nplentiful of natural resources the country has to offer. Indeed, with rainfall\nvarying from 1300 mm in \u201cHigh Guinea\u201d to 4000 mm in \u201cLower Guinea\u201d, there are\nmany above-ground water sources all over the country and immense underground\nwater resources. It comes as no surprise, then, that Guinea even provides water\nsources for some of the neighboring countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was very\nwell received by the National Director of Agriculture, Mr Lamine Tour\u00e9, who was\nvery enthusiastic and eager to start working with Seed Systems Group to improve\nthe seed supply system in Guinea. Rice is by far the leading cultivated crop\nand the most-consumed staple food in the country. During a very interesting\nmeeting with Dr. Karinko Magassouba, the Technical Director of the Institute for\nAgricultural Research of Guinea (IRAG), this was highly stressed, and like my good\nfriend Ibrahima reminded me jokingly, there is rice, again rice, and always\nrice. I did get the picture\u2026 in fact, most of the rice breeding takes place in\nthe Koba Research Station and in that region, rice fields are impressive and a\nbeauty to watch, with over 5000 ha of irrigated rice fields stretching out as\nfar as eye can see. Nerica varieties are popular but the \u2018M6\u2019 variety \u2013 a local\nvariety from IRAG yielding 5-6 tons\/ha \u2013 is becoming more and more popular. Rice\nseed production is also well-organized in this region of Guinea, with\napproximately 1,000 seed producers organized into big cooperatives, with the\nmain constraint being a lack of financial resources. Other crops such as maize are\nalso highly important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rice Seed multiplication cooperative in Koba <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With all its\nextraordinary natural resources, especially water and fertile soil, the Guinean\nGovernment, through its National Program of Agriculture Development (PNDA),\nwants Guinea to become an agricultural powerhouse in the region. To reach this\ngoal, the government is fully aware of the importance of a strong seed system\nand is assisting actors in the seed supply chain through fiscal exonerations,\napplication of newly adopted seed laws, new seed multiplication programs, etc.\nFrom my meetings with the different actors at the Direction of Agriculture or\nfrom exchanging with scientists and extension agents involved in the seed\nindustry in Koba it was clear that a strong seed system is a national and\nfarmer priority and that a collaboration with SSG is highly anticipated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driving with our host and national consultant, Mr Ibrahima Diallo, from the capital city of Conakry to the agricultural research station of Koba, situated 150km further North, in maritime or lower Guinea, what strikes a newcomer like myself is the natural beauty, tropical forest, and of course you get just a glimpse of the plentiful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}