You may soon be able to have your favourite chapati or mandazi made healthier with rice flour.
Researchers are turning to rice value addition as a way to improve diets, enhance nutrition and reduce dependence on imports.
As rice consumption continues to rise across Africa, researchers are promoting its value addition as a way to improve nutrition and boost local economies.
During the CGIAR Science Week last week at the UN Campus in Nairobi, we caught up with Dr Prem Bindraban, AfricaRice deputy director general, who warned that the continent is facing a growing nutrition crisis.
Bindraban is also the Director of Research and Innovation at AfricaRice.
“Nearly 31 per cent of children under five are stunted, and 40 per cent of women of reproductive age suffer from iron-deficiency anaemia,” he said. “At the same time, we’re seeing rising cases of overweight, obesity and diabetes.”
To tackle these challenges, the researcher said AfricaRice is developing systems-based innovations to transform rice into functional food and enhance its nutritional profile with essential micronutrients like iron, zinc, calcium, folate, and vitamins A and B, while also lowering its glycemic index.
“This addresses the dual challenge of undernutrition and metabolic disease,” Bindraban said. “We aim to produce rice in a sustainable way that ensures both food security and decent incomes for farmers.”
Currently, Africa imports over $6 billion (Sh774 billion) worth of rice annually. Bindraban noted that this could be reversed with the right investment and innovation. “We can close this bill by producing an additional 30 million tonnes of rice domestically,” he said.
Despite the potential, local rice production faces significant hurdles of low yields, high production costs, poor nutritional quality and the impacts of climate change.
In Kenya, for example, about 80 per cent of rice is imported, while domestic production is around 250,000 tonnes compared to a national consumption exceeding one million tonnes, according to the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization.
Urban consumption is also rapidly increasing. “People in cities consume up to 100kgs of rice per year,” Bindraban said. “Much of it is white aromatic rice from Asia. Locally grown rice often can’t compete on price, but we must encourage self-sufficiency.”
Unlike Asia, where rice is mainly grown in irrigated fields, Africa has three main systems, irrigated or inundated rice (about 20 per cent), upland rice grown under dry conditions (30 per cent), and rice grown in inland valleys.
“The inland valleys offer fertile soil and natural water retention,” he said.
“In these areas, farmers can grow rice in the valley bottoms and vegetables or legumes on the slopes. This is a nature-based system that supports biodiversity. Scaling up inland valley farming is key to meeting the goal of producing 30 million more tonnes of rice,” he added.
While increasing quantity is important, Bindraban stressed the need to improve quality. “Most people eat highly polished white rice, but this lacks essential nutrients,” he said.
The researcher said when rice is milled, the nutrient-rich outer layer containing iron, zinc and vitamins is often discarded. “We give that part to chickens, while people eat the starch,” he said.
To retain those nutrients, AfricaRice is promoting parboiling, a process where paddy rice is steamed under pressure before milling. This helps nutrients penetrate the grain and preserves more of the healthy brown color.
“This way, the rice retains zinc, iron, calcium and vitamins,” he explained. “It’s healthier and still affordable.”
The process of parboiling which is mainly done by women, enhances rice with iron, zinc, folic acid. “This retains up to 81 per cent of added nutrients and reduces glycemic response. Parboiling improves the physical and nutritional quality of rice compared to its non-parboiled counterpart, “ he said.
Bindraban said rice could also be milled to rice flour which is another opportunity for value addition. It can be used to make chapatis, mandazi, chips and more. The rice flour can also be fortified to have rice products, such as combining rice with moringa for even more health benefits, which is ideal for use in school feeding programmes.
Other by-products like rice husks can even be turned into charcoal, supporting eco-friendly production.
Bindraban urged Africans to eat African rice. “It’s healthier and it supports our farmers. Together, we can grow more, eat better and build a self-sufficient future,” he said.
