 African rice varieties grew most successfully in the continent’s alkaline soils and conditions of varying moisture. However, their yield potential was remarkably low, especially compared to the more productive varieties introduced from Asia which had low resistance to African pests and diseases and did not adapt well to the soil and climate. Combining these species had been attempted before, but had never met with success because early in the crossbreeding process the progeny rice varieties always developed sterility.
Jones led his staff to organize and classify all available rice varieties, including 1,500 accessions of the native O. glaberrima species, which were in danger of extinction. From this collection, Jones and his team began the painstaking process of selecting parents for combination traits, crossing them to produce offspring, and backcrossing the offspring to fix varietal traits from the two species and overcome the sterility barrier. After three years of breeding research, the first stable and fertile cross was produced.
With the ability to resist weeds, survive droughts, and thrive on poor soils gained from its African parent and the trait of higher productivity from its Asian ancestor, NERICA rice is capable of increasing farmers’ harvests by 25 to 250 percent. It has been especially valuable in the drier upland regions, where much of West Africa’s rice is grown, with yields reaching four to six tons per hectare. In addition, its shorter, three-month growing time – as opposed to the six months required by parent species – allows African farmers to harvest NERICA rice during the annual “hunger period” when food reserves run out, and to double-crop with nutritionally rich legumes and vegetables or high-value fiber crops in one growing season.
For the consumer, especially poor or malnourished families, NERICA provides increased amounts of protein at a lower price. The nutritional, economic, and political impact of NERICA on countries that previously had to import rice annually is difficult to overstate.
Jones continued to show leadership and innovation in taking NERICA rice to farmers in Africa’s villages. He built partnerships with the West Africa Rice Development Agency and policy makers, non-governmental organizations, and research and extension services. He outlined a plan for community-based, participatory, and gender-sensitive programs that would both rapidly disseminate the seeds and allow rice farmers – a majority being women – an active role in planting and evaluating the hybrids and continuing outreach in rural areas.
For his breakthrough achievements in creating a rice variety specifically bred for the ecological and agricultural conditions in Africa, Jones won The World Food Prize jointly with Yuan Longping of China, also a rice researcher, in 2004 – which was declared the United Nations International Year of Rice. With his World Food Prize monetary award, Jones continued to support and invest in the extension of programs such as those in Sierra Leone and the rest of Africa.
Jones’ work led to the rapid development of more than 3,000 NERICA lines. As demonstrated in pilot projects undertaken in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Togo, NERICA benefited 20 million rice farmers and 240 million consumers in West Africa alone, in addition to other parts of Africa and the world. In the early 21st century, NERICA resulted in over 30 percent expansion in upland rice cultivation in Nigeria, and Guinea’s rice imports were reduced by 50 percent in three years, allowing the country to become a net exporter of rice in 2005.
In 2002, Jones was appointed the executive secretary of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), based in Ghana. At FARA, he oversaw advocacy and coordination efforts in support of regional research, with the goal of increasing agricultural growth by at least six percent annually by 2020 as well as fostering ongoing economic growth, alleviating poverty and improving food security for Africa’s people. In 2007, Time magazine named Jones as one of the world’