Africa's Green Revolution

 Throughout my research on water and development in Africa, the term “Green Revolution” has appeared across numerous academic papers that I have read. Therefore, in this week’s blog I aim to explore this idea and its significance in ensuring future food security in all African states.

Figure 1: Alliance for a green revolution

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) was established in 2006 and formed through a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Both foundations core belief is “investing in agriculture is the surest path to reducing poverty and hunger in Africa”. AGRA is quite unique compared to other organisations as it is independent and led by Africans based in Africa. This is because the foundation believes that African professionals and scholars know the best as only Africans truly hold the experience and knowledge to enlighten Africa’s agriculture. Moreover, ensuring Africans lead this revolution provides people with greater incentives to guarantee successful strategies and investments in agriculture.

In order to fulfil the foundations belief, AGRA focuses on smallholder farmers as they make up a large percentage of the continent’s population. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, they make up more than 60% of the population. By strengthening smallholder farmers, it ensures food security for their own families but also makes their production much more profitable (AGRA).

One of AGRA’s initiatives is to implement new “good” seeds and improve smallholder farmers accessibility to these seeds. These improve stability and productivity of staple crops such as maize and cassava. This is because “good” seeds are designed to tolerate hard climatic conditions and pests (AGRA).  Moreover, many farmers live in very rural regions so access to these seeds can be challenging, but AGRA provides the adequate operational assistance to ensure these seeds are accessible to everyone. “Farm Input Promotions Africa” is a scheme set up by AGRA which involves taking seeds to rural areas, home to many smallholder farmers, and also educating the farmers the most efficient method to cultivate these good seeds (Blackie and Albright, 2005). Despite these efforts, people remain sceptical about all the “good” these seeds do. A study carried out in Gambia suggested that these AGRA seeds and new farming techniques do not improve farms for the better. The study underlined that there were higher crop yields in the crops that used new seeds, but it came with consequences.  There were notable decreases in other crops as well as agro-ecological knowledge (Kerr, 2012). The study concluded that these “good” seeds are unsustainable, despite AGRA increasing the yield of rice, and showed that the percentage of undernourished people increased from 20 to 30% (Kerr, 2012).

Although “good” seeds are a key feature of AGRA’s green revolution, AGRA also seeks to encourage sustainability and reduce environmental degradation of agricultural activities. This is tightly aligned with Kofi Annan’s aspirations. As Secretary-General of the UN from 1997 to 2006, he has focused on smallholder farm productivity and efficiency whilst sustaining the environment. According to Moseley (2017), with climate change posing ever-greater threats it is imperative that science and technology are utilised to combat and diminish environmental degradation.

Overall, AGRA is a vital cooperative framework with positive goals and intentions to raise smallholder livelihoods and productivity, which will eventually lead to a self-sufficient food secure Africa.

To find out more about AGRA, check out their website here.