Despite decades of international research and development efforts focusing on increased rice production in Africa, there is large yield gap, and the local production still needs to be complemented by rice imports to meet consumption demands. This paper aims to provide an overview of published research findings on rice yield gaps and the effects of ‘good agricultural practices’ (GAPs) on rice yield and nutrient use efficiency. The majority of previous studies were from irrigated lowlands, and quantified rice yield gaps as farmer-based (difference between ‘actual yield’ and ‘best farmers’ yield’) and model-based yield gaps (difference between ‘actual yield’ and ‘potential yield for irrigated and water-limited potential yield for rainfed rice’). The mean farmer- and model-based yield gaps were 3.1 and 5.0 t ha^–1 for irrigated lowland (IL); 3.1 and 7.7 t ha^–1 for rainfed lowland (RL); 2.0 and 6.0 t ha^–1 for rainfed upland (RU), respectively in Africa. An analysis of studies from literature on GAPs in Africa revealed that most studies (64 %) were from IL and a wide range of yield increases following individual components of GAPs across environments. A median yield increase of 1.0 t ha^–1 was achieved with improved water conservation practices in IL, whereas improved weed management increased yields by 0.7 t ha^–1, mainly in IL compared to farmers’ practices. Application of inorganic fertilizers and/or organic amendments increased the yield by 0.8–1.2 t ha^–1 across the environments. Integration of GAPs increased the median yield by 2.1 and 1.5 t ha^–1 in IL and RL, respectively. The calculated agronomic efficiency of N, P and K from fertilizer experiments were within the desirable levels mainly in the IL and RL environments and comparable to the values from similar environments in Asia. For instance, the agronomic efficiency of N was 21, 13 and 12 kg kg^–1, respectively for IL, RL and RU in Africa. Although rice yield gaps in Africa can be substantially reduced by introduction of integrated GAPs to farmers, there is large difference between model-based yield gaps and yield gain obtained by integrated GAPs. Further efforts are needed to identify factors causing this difference. We recommend a research and development focus on rainfed lowland rice systems, which have the largest model-based yield gaps by partially converting them to irrigated systems, and on improving nutrient use efficiencies and closing nutrient cycles.

尽管几十年来国际研究和开发的重点是增加非洲的稻米产量，但产量差距很大，当地生产仍需要进口大米来补充以满足消费需求。本文旨在概述已发表的关于水稻产量差距的研究结果以及“良好农业规范”（GAP）对水稻产量和养分利用效率的影响。以前的大多数研究都来自灌溉低地，并将水稻产量差距量化为基于农民（“实际产量”和“最佳农民”产量之间的差异）和基于模型的产量差距（“实际产量”和“潜在产量”之间的差异）灌溉的产量和雨育水稻的限水潜在产量'）。基于农民和模型的平均产量差距分别为 3.1 和 5.0 t ha ^–1用于灌溉低地 (IL)；3.1 和 7.7 t ha ^–1用于雨养低地 (RL)；非洲旱作高地 (RU) 分别为2.0 和 6.0 t ha ^{–1 。}对非洲 GAP 文献研究的分析表明，大多数研究 (64%) 来自 IL，并且随着 GAP 的各个组成部分在不同环境中的产量增加幅度很大。通过改进伊利诺伊州的节水做法，单产中值增加了 1.0 吨公顷^{-1 ，而改进的杂草管理使产量增加了 0.7 吨公顷-1}，主要是在伊利诺伊州，与农民的做法相比。施用无机肥料和/或有机改良剂使产量增加了 0.8–1.2 t ha ^–1跨环境。GAP 的整合使 IL 和 RL 的中位产量分别提高了 2.1 和 1.5 t ha ^-1。从肥料试验中计算出的 N、P 和 K 的农艺效率主要在 IL 和 RL 环境中处于理想水平，并且与亚洲类似环境的值相当。例如，N 的农艺效率为 21、13 和 12 kg kg ^–1，分别为非洲的 IL、RL 和 RU。尽管通过向农民引入综合 GAP 可以大大缩小非洲的水稻产量差距，但基于模型的产量差距与综合 GAP 获得的产量增益之间存在很大差异。需要进一步努力确定导致这种差异的因素。我们建议将研究和开发重点放在雨育低地水稻系统上，通过将其部分转换为灌溉系统，该系统具有最大的基于模型的产量差距，以及提高养分利用效率和关闭养分循环。