Between February 25 and March 3, 2011, the GSR project undertook the first review. The countries covered were Mozambique, Mali and Senegal. Meetings between the representatives of local NARES and commerical seed companies (for demonstration to local farmers) were arranged to strengthen the linkage between them and for better coordination.

In Mozambique, the delegation first visited the demonstration and seed production sites at XaiXai. The XaiXai site is managed by a Chinese private company,  Mozambique Lianfeng Agricultural Development Co. Ltd. Followed by Instituto de Investigacao Agraria de Mocambique, which is a Mozambique NARES.

The site in Mali was managed by the Institute of Rice, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences (China). The final destination of this trip was St Louis, Senegal, to visit the sites managed by Africa Rice Center.

Left: Dr Surapong Sarkarung (left), an IRRI consultant, and Dr Mou (right). Right: Dr Brian Love from the BMGF reviewing GSR materials.

Left: GSR material Huanghuazhan reached 7.34t/ha in a previous trial. Right: XaiXai site. 

 Left) Visiting the Mozambique NARES Instituto de Investigacao Agraria de Mocambique (IIAM).  Right) Dr Marco Langa (white shirt in the middle), the representative of GSR Mozambique NARES introduced the GSR delegates to the IIAM staff.

Left) Field workers at the IIAM trial site. Right) View of the IIAM trial site

Left) View of a trial site managed by Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences (JAAS, China).  Right) In a linkage meeting in Mali. Dr Dazhou Chen the deputy director of the Institute of Rice of JAAS (second from right) discussed partnership possibilities with  Dr Mamadou Coulibaly, the representative of GSR Mali NARES (in blue shirt).