A farm in Uganda shows the harvesting of high-quality Korean rice varieties with high yield. (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs)  

By Wu Jinhua

The K-Ricebelt Project of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has harvested for the first time high-quality Korean rice varieties with high yield in the six African countries participating in the program.

Launching the project last year, the ministry along with the Rural Development Administration on March 25 said 2,321 tons of such varieties have been harvested in Ghana (330 tons), Gambia (180), Senegal (66), Guinea (1,119), Cameroon (111) and Uganda (515).

The project is part of Korea's official development assistance (ODA) to help African countries highly dependent on rice imports due to lack of domestic output, enabling farmers there to produce and supply high-yield varieties of high quality. 

The harvested rice will go to farmers or the underprivileged in each country after consultations with the participating nations.

The ministry will expand annual rice production in Africa to 10,000 tons by 2027, enough to stably feed 30 million people on the continent. 

For this purpose, the ministry from this year will start arranging farmland within the rice production area, installing water drains and maintaining farm roads. It will also set up "ODA desks" in key African partner countries such as Ghana, Senegal and Kenya and dispatch experts there.

Chong Hairyon, director-general of the ministry's International Cooperation Bureau, said, "We will thoroughly manage the K-Ricebelt Project so that the results of this harvest act as the seeds of innovation for food security in Africa."

jane0614@korea.kr