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'Smart Valleys' Bring Rice Bounty in Benin

Daniel Aboko proudly shows off the 11 hectares (27 acres) of paddy fields he shares with other farmers -- a small spread that produces a bounty of food thanks to smart irrigation and a hardy strain of rice.

In just four years, small farmers in Ouinhi, southeastern Benin, have seen their harvest double from three to six tonnes of rice per hectare (1.2 to 2.4 tonnes per acre).

They produce so much, in fact, that they have created an unusual problem for West Africa: a local glut.

"People come here to ask us questions and they invite me to their fields to train them," beamed Aboko, after parking his motorbike.

"It's quite common in Ouinhi," he said.

Some 500 rice growers work in 20 paddy fields in the town of 40,000 people in the hilly, rural department of Zou.

They accepted an invitation from the Africa Rice Centre, or AfricaRice -- a not-for-profit research and training centre -- to change their irrigation system, and it's worked wonders.

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