This study investigated rice production status, rice consumption characteristics, and rice import and export trends in sub-Saharan Africa for researchers and policy makers on rice production in Africa and to suggest key strategy to improve rice self-sufficiency in Africa. In recent years, sub-Saharan Africa has seen an increasing number of food security conflicts because of climate change. The ultimate solution is to increase their food productivity and self-sufficiency in their countries. Rice is very important for poverty reduction in Africa because of its availability and affordability, making it accessible to the poor in Africa as a staple food. The total area of rice production in sub-Saharan Africa has nearly doubled from 7 million ha in 2000 to 13 million ha in 2020, and rice demand is also on the rise. However, the climate change and extreme weather events have led to greater variability in rice productivity, and international rice prices have increased continuously, making it increasingly difficult to improve Africa's rice self-sufficiency. In order to increase rice production and improve self-sufficiency in Africa, there are many challenges, such as irrigation facilities, improving soil quality, and supplying pesticides and fertilizers, but the most important is to develop and disseminate new rice varieties suitable for the African region. This will require not only breeding appropriate varieties for Africa's climate and soil, but also selecting proper varieties that meet the preferences of Africans. Additionally, an infrastructure system from production, cultivation, harvesting and storage to processing for the appropriate rice varieties should be aligned at the same time.

Cameroon, with her numerous resources, still epends on foreign aid while the rate of poverty remains high. Thus, even though historical evidence gives impetus to the impasse over role of developmental aid, from the top down approach through to development as a springboard raising states from the doldrums of poverty, it is still very difficult to draw a substantial relationship between developmental aid and poverty reduction. Against this backdrop of controversy, I find it apt to put Cameroon on a balance scale. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to critically assess the implications of developmental aid on poverty reduction and agro-rural development in Cameroon, using the RUMPI Area Development Project in the South West region of Cameroon as a case study. The study will situate and contextualize the top-down and bottom-up approaches to development within the basis of a Cameroonian perspective, using the Sachs-Easterly debate. The RUMPI Project was introduced with the objective of improving agriculture and empowering the rural woman; thereby fighting poverty within the South West region of Cameroon. Despite its criticism of the barriers to development created by corruption, political pressure and limited use of local and grass-root partnerships, the study, in assessing these failures also tries to outline vital ways in which the project can be improved upon.