The Rice Biodiversity Center for Africa (RBCA) was officially inaugurated by the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire, Dr Abdallah Toikeusse Mabri, in the presence of the Minister for the Promotion of Rice, Mr Gaoussou Touré, on 21 February 2020, at the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) Research Station in M’bé near Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire.
A major component of the RBCA is its new state-of-the-art genebank, which holds the largest collection of African rice in the world and the largest rice collection in Africa, with almost 22,000 accessions under long-term storage in trust for humanity and in accordance with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).