This paper examined actual farmers’ cultivation practices of NERICA (New Rice for Africa) and the determinants of its yield, based on data obtained from a field survey conducted in central Uganda. NERICA’s high yielding potential was realized in farmers’ fields. On average, farmers attained yield as high as 3 t ha^-1. A high seeding rate, high fertilizer/chemical applications and high laborintensity characterized the upland NERICA cultivation in the study area. The estimation of yield function revealed that the response of rice yield to nitrogen was as high as 46 kg ha^-1 of paddy per 1 kg ha^-1 of nitrogen applied, and that the continuous planting reduced the yield significantly. The large difference in the unit yield between large and small farmers was explained by small farmers’ higher input intensities than large farmers’, and it is the high labor requirement of NERICA that makes it a pro-smallholder technology.

No abstract

In East Africa where a drastic improvement in food security is an urgent need, rice, a non-traditional crop in most of countries in the region, has emerged as an important food crop that could extend the Green Revolution to the region following the introduction of New Rice for Africa (NERICA) in the early 2000s. Using data collected through a nationwide survey, this paper examines the possibility of rice green revolution by estimating the technical efficiency (TE) of rainfed rice farmers in Uganda and simulates how unfavorable climate changes affect it. The estimated stochastic frontier yield function showed that the mean TE was 65% for lowland and 60% for upland, and that the potential yield of rainfed rice cultivation was as high as 3 t•ha −1. However, the stochastic simulation of rainfall and rice yield revealed that unfavorable climate changes could erase the high potential in crop yield. Rainfed rice cultivation could be a leading sector for realizing Green Revolution in East Africa. It plays a critical role in this process to improve rice farmers' TE, which is lower in the region than in Asia. Worsening climatic conditions, if occur, make this need even more imperative.