Africa Factbook

Africa Rice Center helped develop New Rice for Africa or NERICA rice variety for planting in Sub-Saharan Africa’s dry-lands . Rice is a staple food in Africa, its growing importance is evident in the food security planning policies of many countries, and West Africa is the major contributor to rice production in Africa . Coumbayel Coulibaly displays a calabash full of the high-yielding New Rice for Africa variety. In 1992 the Africa Rice Center with benefactors, notably CGIAR, Gatsby Foundation, IFAD, Japan, Rockefeller Foundation, UNDP and World Bank began work on cultivating a new rice species.  AfricaRice developed a new breed of rice with desirable traits tailored to growing in the African climate . The new variety New Rice for Africa or NERICA now has 18 different varieties suitable for the upland (dry-land) rice ecology of sub-Saharan Africa. Rice is a staple food in Africa and its growing importance is evident in the food security planning policies of many coun

Age of Discovery, Portugal and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Portuguese in search of slaves, and other money making trading goods in Africa during The Age of Discovery. The Portuguese brought the first slaves in 1444 from Northern Mauritania in Africa. Age of Discovery, Portugal and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Born around 1394 Infante Dom Henrique de Avis also known as Henry the Navigator or Prince Henry is looked upon as a significant patron of the Age of Discovery. His father King John I conquered Ceuta in 1415. Ceuta is a small Spanish territory that lies just 18 miles from Gibraltar in North Africa.  Prince Henry wanted to expand the business opportunities of Portugal at the same time destroy the operational base of the dreaded and feared Barbary pirates. There was extensive trade in gold and salt across the Sahara Desert that Prince Henry wanted to control.  Prince Henry began an agenda to seek out direct sea trade routes to gain access to the gold