VIDEO DOCUMENTS HOW NEW AFRICAN RICE OFFERS HOPE FOR WORLD'S POOREST FARMERS

The struggle for food-especially rice--is desperate for the 240 million people of West Africa-one of every three persons on the continent. About 20 million in the region, the world's poorest, are rice farmers. Most are women.

We see the struggle through the eyes of Bintu, a woman African rice farmer, in Bintu and Her New African Rice, a 26-minute documentary video just produced by AGCOM International, and available in both English and French.

The video shows how traditional rice varieties have bound Bintu, like her ancestors, to an environmentally degrading system of slash-and-burn farming. It also documents the evolution of two rice species, over thousands of years, in Asia and Africa. Bintu prefers the hardier and tastier African species, but plants the Asian rice because it yields more.

Scientists had long wanted to tailor a new rice strain for Africa by crossing the African and Asian rices. But the species are so different, all such efforts had failed.

Until now. Bintu shows how scientists at the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), based in the Ivory Coast used biotechnology to combine the best traits of the African and Asian rices. The rugged new African rice resists drought, local pests, and problem soils, and is doubling and tripling production, with few or no inputs. This is the story of what that means to Bintu, and to millions like her.

"Demand for rice is increasing faster in West Africa than anywhere on earth," says. Dr. Kwanzo Nwanze, WARDA Director General. "In three decades, rice imports have increased by eight times, to almost 4 million tons a year. The cost is $1 billion-a cruel price for a region where half the population barely survives on less than one U.S. dollar a day."

The symbolic Bintu of the video is actually Ms. Delphine Koudouo, a real Ivorian rice farmer who grows-and believes in--the new African rice.

Bintu was produced by AGCOM International, which specializes in video production on agriculture and the environment. WARDA is one of 16 International Centers sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a group of 25 nations, foundations, and development banks dedicated to increasing agricultural production, in an environmentally sustainable manner, in the developing nations.

Order copies from AGCOM International, 4005 North Lugano Way, Flagstaff, AZ, 86004, USA (Phone/FAX 1 800 598-3372). Contact: Lawrence J. Klaas, Producer.