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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Is a Green Revolution in the Works for Sub-Saharan Africa?

    February 1, 2008 By Rachel Weisshaar

    “After decades of mistreatment, abuse, and exploitation, African farmers—still overwhelmingly smallholders working family-tilled plots of land—are awakening from a long slumber,” writes G. Pascal Zachary in the Winter 2008 issue of the Wilson Quarterly. In “The Coming Revolution in Africa,” Zachary argues that sub-Saharan Africa’s small-scale farmers—who constitute 60 percent of the region’s population—are making important gains that could transform them into key economic and political players in their countries.

    Several factors are contributing to the growth of sub-Saharan African agriculture, says Zachary, including:
    • Rising prices for crops, including corn and coffee, partially due to the global ethanol boom;
    • Growing use of modern agricultural techniques and products such as fertilizer, irrigation, mechanization, and improved seed varieties;
    • Increasing urbanization, which frees up land in the countryside, creates consumers for crops, and links farmers to global markets; and
    • African governments’ growing recognition of the crucial economic role played by small-scale farmers. “African governments seem likely to increasingly promote trade and development policies that advance rural interests,” says Zachary.
    Zachary’s focus on this positive trend is a welcome one, and the stories he tells of the struggles and successes of Ugandan and Malawian farmers are compelling. I was puzzled, however, that he did not mention the significant (though admittedly recent) efforts in this area by organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, which have partnered to form Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which targets small-scale farmers and their families. On January 25, 2008, Gates announced his foundation would give out $306 million in new agricultural development grants, with $164.5 million—the largest grant—going to a five-year program run by AGRA to revive small-scale farmers’ depleted soils. Additional grants will support the development of agricultural science and technology, farmer extension services, and market systems.

    In addition, although Zachary’s optimism is refreshing, he is perhaps too dismissive of the serious challenges facing these farmers, which include climate change, water scarcity (especially as irrigation becomes more widespread), high population growth, lack of access to health care, weak land tenure laws, and civil strife. But with more global attention, better national and international policies, and more financial support, small-scale African farmers may indeed overcome these obstacles and help lead their countries out of poverty.
    Topics: Africa, agriculture, livelihoods, poverty
    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/03952127057599143375 Alison Williams

      Great post, Rachel. I completely agree with your commentary. Zachary’s failure to note the many recent (and not so recent) efforts to bring the Green Revolution to Africa seems like a fairly large oversight. Similarly, most neo-Green Revolutionaries don’t know (or tune out) the cautionary words of Norman Borlaug, the father of the original movement, who thinks Africa is not up to the task—not because of lack of technology and education or poor governance (although those may well be factors), but largely because of a critical lack of infrastructure, primarily roads. How can you expect to change anything if you can’t get inputs in or outputs out?

      But beyond infrastructure, what troubles me is the development community’s failure (at least so far) to do a little retrospective analysis. What is the state of India and South Asia’s agriculture several decades after the first Green wave? Well, it’s not so good. Complete crop failure is not uncommon in Northern India, due in large part to excessive pesticide use that resulted in widespread pest resistance. And studies are linking the shockingly high rates of cancer in the area to water supplies tainted by years of excessive synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. The list of troubles is far too long to fully name here.

      Zachary’s article shows there is great potential—and demand—for expanding agriculture in Africa. Accomplishing this expansion, though, will require some creativity and a departure from the status quo—a position where many seem all to comfortable to stay. Rather than blindly assigning old solutions like chemical fertilizer and seed-hybrids I would love to see some new ideas—better matching crops to landscapes and soil types, rather than trying to grow cotton and rice in water-strapped areas. Or maybe promoting the use of organic fertilizers rather than synthetic ones—a plan that is entirely possible if small farmers keep managing small plots, and which would avoid all the environmental and health damage. The original Green Revolution resulted in some wonderful outcomes, and prevented some awful ones. But past policies should always be reviewed and can always be improved. In this case, there are many lessons to be learned. Let’s hope Gates and others are spending some money on research and planning before jumping straight to implementation.

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/15130206644052866501 Rachel Weisshaar

      Thanks for your comments, Alison. You’re correct to point out that we shouldn’t try to simply replicate South Asia’s Green Revolution in Africa, but rather adapt and improve it to fit Africa’s unique conditions. I think Zachary would agree: He praises Ugandan Vice President Gilbert Bukenya for promoting a new variety of rice that requires less water than traditional varieties and can grow in uplands (instead of rice paddies).

      As for infrastructure: Zachary believes sub-Saharan agriculture cannot wait for roads to be built—he thinks this will take too long and be too expensive. “Just as the mobile phone bypassed the vastly expensive challenge of upgrading dysfunctional African land-line systems, a big push into rural-based aviation, aimed at moving crops from the bush to African cities and beyond, would leapfrog the problem of bad roads,” he argues. Now, this sounds awfully ambitious—but then again, building or upgrading many thousands of miles of roads poses its own significant challenges.

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