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Dr George Bigirwa of NARO, Uganda, Wins Award
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Dr. George Bigirwa
(left) receiving the plaque from Mr. Mbogo, the Permanent Secretary
in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives of
Tanzania during the Africa Rice Congress meeting at Movenpick Hotel,
Dar es Salaam, on August 4, 2006.
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Dr. George Bigirwa, a Ugandan Plant Pathologist and Head of the National
Cereals Research Programme based at NARO’s Namulonge Agricultural and
Animal Institute scooped an award for presenting “The Best Scientific
Paper” at the recently concluded
African Rice Congress in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Dr. Bigirwa presented paper on ‘The Performance of the New Rice for Africa
(NERICAS)
Upland Varieties in Uganda”. The paper concludes that Uganda has a better
comparative advantage in rice growing than Kenya and Tanzania. The paper
was voted by over 300 scientists and researchers across the globe who
participated in the first ever African Rice Congress at Movenpick Hotel
during 31 July - 4 August 2006. It presented Uganda’s success story in
developing the NARIC3, an improved cross breed of African and Asian rice.
Dr Bigirwa received a plaque, a certificate of recognition and a ribbon
which were handed to him by Engineer Mbogo, the Permanent Secretary in
Tanzania’s Agriculture Ministry, at the closing ceremony of the five-day
congress.
Dr Bigirwa said Uganda was the first country in east, central and southern
Africa to release NERICAs seeds after accessing the initial stock of 0.5
kg from the African Rice Centre, WARDA. He said before the introduction of
NARIC3 in Uganda, upland rice then yielded below 1,500 kg per hectare as
opposed to the more than 4,000 kg from growing NARIC3. NARIC3 matures in
120 days and it is grown twice a year and 60-80 kg/ha is required for
planting.
Additional information related to the article
Contact Information
George Bigirwa (PhD)
Plant Pathologist & Head Cereals Program
Namulonge Agric. Research Institute
P.O. Box 7084, Kampala, Uganda
Office Tel: 256 41 370907
Cell phone 256 772 405600
Email. g.bigirwa@naro-ug.org
Original story by Josephine Maseruka, Dar es Salaam,
The New Vision,
08 August, 2006.
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