2026-06-28http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/311018The Report of the 5th EPMR of WARDA was discussed at the Eighth Meeting of the Science Council (SC), at Bioversity Internationals HQ in Maccarese, Italy. The rising importance of rice in SSA is the rationale given by WARDA for its planned expansion into East and Central Africa, which initially contemplates increasing member states from 17 to 21. The Panel notes that WARDA has conducted very relevant work, focusing both on genetic and non-genetic solutions to rice production systems in Africa . The SC welcomes the recent alignment with IRRI and CIAT on rice, and encourages WARDA to adopt a strategic view towards its own research on rice for African environments, taking advantage of the specific opportunities identified in the Panels report. There should be constant efforts to assess and enhance all aspects of science, and not to overstretch critical mass by too rapid an expansion to East and Southern Africa.227application/pdfFAOBook (stand-alone)