Welcome to ARGIS
AfricaRice Genebank Information System (ARGIS) goes public. Genetic Resources Unit (GRU) developed ARGIS and made it available on Internet. ARGIS contains information on Germplasm conserved in AfricaRice's Genebank, how to obtain seeds from AfricaRice using Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) and many other datasets. The database holds records of over 19,000 rice accessions.
Our mission
Our mission is to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure that rice production is environmentally sustainable in Africa. We work closely with most rice-producing and -consuming countries and their national agricultural research and extension systems as well as farming communities and a range of international, regional, and local organizations. In partnerships with these national systems, we conduct research and provide training and education for those helping rice farmers by disseminating information and proven, sustainable technologies.
Seeds conservation
AfricaRice has currently four storage media located in three different continents. One medium term storage is in Cotonou, Republic of Benin in West Africa. The medium term storage in Cotonou is from 5 to 10°c. One long term storage; located in Ibadan, Republic of Federal Nigeria, Africa. The temperature is around -18°c. Two safety backups at -20°c, one located in Svalbard - Norway in Europe. The second one is located in Fort Collins, USA in North America. All the three long term storages conserve samples of the whole AfricaRice germplasm collection. This is a prudent way of insuring that, if anything wrong happens, we should be able to restore all the material back to any part of the requested place in the world. Material conserved in Svalbard are in black box, the ones kept in Fort Collins are known as safety backup. Our base collection is the sample we conserve in Ibadan.
We conserve four type of rice material originated from different countries of the world, Asia, Europ, Australia, America and Africa. Oryza sativa accessions is the greater part of the collection, followd by Oryza glaberrima accessions, Improved varieties and the smallest part is Wilds rice species.