Africa Rice Center (WARDA) is an autonomous intergovernmental research association of African member states. It is also one of the 15 international agricultural research Centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). 

The Center was created in 1971 by 11 African countries with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Until end September 2007, it comprised 17 member states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. In September 2007, four more countries joined WARDA: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Uganda. Egypt joined WARDA in June 2008. With this the total number of WARDA member countries has gone up to 22, including countries from West, East, Central and North Africa.

It was constituted as the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA)—a name that it carried until 2003 when it was designated by the WARDA Council of Ministers as the Africa Rice Center in recognition of its increasing and leading role in rice R&D in SSA.

Its mission is to contribute to poverty alleviation and food security in Africa, through research, development and partnership activities aimed at increasing the productivity and profitability of the rice sector in ways that ensure the sustainability of the farming environment.

The modus operandi of the Center is partnership at all levels. Its research and development activities are conducted in collaboration with various stakeholders—primarily the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), academic institutions, advanced research institutions, farmers’ organizations, non-governmental organizations, and donors—for the benefit of African farmers, mostly small-scale producers, as well as the millions of African families for whom rice means food.  

The Center hosts the African Rice Initiative (ARI), the Regional Rice Research and Development Network for West and Central Africa (ROCARIZ), and the Inland Valley Consortium (IVC).

WARDA’s temporary headquarters is based in Cotonou, Benin; research staff are also based in Senegal, Nigeria, Tanzania and Côte d’Ivoire.