New Rice for Africa the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-IV) in 2008. The new rice varieties, which are suited to drylands, were distributed and sown on more than 200,000 hectares during the last five years in several African countries, notably Guinea, Nigeria, Mali, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and Uganda, according to the Africa Rice Center. Though this represents a major advance, it is still projected to fall short of meeting the growing demand for rice as a food staple. African rice "Oryza glaberrima" has been cultivated for 3,500 years and is well adapted to the African environment. African rice has profuse vegetative
Elasmopalpus brown anterior and distal margins. The larvae feed on a wide range of plants but prefer grasses. Recorded host plants include a number of economically important plants such as "Phaseolus vulgaris", "Beta vulgaris", "Brassica oleracea" var. "capitata", "Cucumis melo", "Cyperus esculentus", "Zea mays", "Vigna unguiculata", "Phaseolus lunatus", "Avena sativa", "Pisum sativum", "Arachis hypogaea", "Capsicum annuum", "Oryza sativa", "Secale cereale", "Sorghum bicolor", "Glycine max", "Sorghum sudanense", "Saccharum officinarum", "Ipomoea batatas", "Lycopersicon esculentum", "Brassica rapa" and "Triticum aestivum". They tunnel into the crown of their host plant, severely weakening large plants and often killing young seedlings. They spin silken tubes near the