Green Revolution In Africa Research Articles

Power and networks in the shaping of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

AGRA (formerly known as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) was founded in 2006 by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation to initiate agricultural transformation in Africa. Although critics have argued that AGRA’s approach insufficiently addresses the needs of African smallholder farmers, there has been little analysis of the broader politics and networks that shape AGRA, a gap this paper aims to fill. Using a network analysis and key informant interviews, we identify the actors that constitute AGRA’s network, and describe related power constellations. Our paper illustrates that AGRA’s network is dominated by foundations, intergovernmental organisations and corporations, with decision-making located within Global North institutions. We reveal that the alliance displays characteristics of an ideological advocacy network and conclude that it can be considered a neoliberal food regime. We suggest better control mechanisms to hold accountable organisations without a political mandate, and to increase the transparency of their activities.

The irrigated wheat initiative of Ethiopia: a new paradigm emulating Asia’s green revolution in Africa

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to assess and document the experience of the successful irrigated wheat initiative in Ethiopia, identify potential limitations, and suggest alternative options that contribute towards the sustainability of the program. In the past decades, Ethiopia has initiated several projects to ensure food and wheat security but did not achieve the anticipated impact as planned. In 2019, however, the current government of Ethiopia put in place structural, economic, and sectorial reforms, with wheat chosen as a strategic commodity for food security, raw material for the agroindustry, import substitution that transits to export, and job creation along the value chain. With a total of 2.6 million ha of land cultivated under both rain-fed and irrigated systems, followed by a record amount of wheat harvest (8.2 million tons) in 2022, Ethiopia achieved a wheat self-sufficiency ratio of 100% and more than 1 million tons of surplus for export, indicating that the new irrigated wheat initiative of Ethiopia has been found transformational and is becoming a game changer. Moreover, modest case scenario projections revealed that Ethiopia will become a net exporter of wheat by 2023, indicating that the country is achieving not only wheat security but also championing the possibility of replicating Asia’s Green Revolution in Africa. Yet, the sustainability of the current initiative relies on an efficient water management system, private sector engagement, sustainable input supply, well-established input and output marketing systems, and leadership commitment at all levels.

The past, current, and future of the Africa Green Revolution: The case study of Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria

AbstractThe “Green Revolution in Africa” is an agricultural revolution aiming to ensure food security in Africa. However, dissemination of existing knowledge about the “Green Revolution” is poor. The objective of this study is to investigate the existing knowledge on the “Green Revolution in Africa.” A systematic literature review (SLR) is performed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA). The SLR method has identified 149 articles and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) reports on Africa's Green Revolution. Qualitative studies used four main databases, that is, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, and Springer Link. The authors developed three main themes to structure this study: the historic background of the Green Revolution, the status of agricultural development in Africa, and the results of Africa's Green Revolution policy, as well as alternative ways to achieve the Green Revolution in Africa and Sustainable Development Goals under climate change and global crises. The study found that the Green Revolution is far from reaching its initial targets as there is increasing hunger and poor crop productivity. Some studies proposed agro ecology, green technology innovation and smart farming, efficient irrigation, drainage and water management, and adaptation to climate change. For water stressed regions, other policies and strategies should be adopted such as rainfall harvesting, use of nonconventional waters and nonconventional crops and use of less water consuming crops. These are possible approaches to achieve Africa's Green Revolution in a rapidly changing climate and global crises.

“No one is talking about food”: making agriculture a “business” in Ghana

At the turn of the 21st century, a collection of donors created the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to spark a “new” Green Revolution on the African continent. Since its inception, AGRA’s mission has revolved around a series of interventions designed around the idea of making agriculture a “business.” In this paper, I ask how AGRA puts such discourses into practice with a particular focus in Ghana. To do so, I draw on a television show produced by AGRA called Kuapa, organizational literature, and to a lesser extent, interviews, to assess how AGRA materializes its goals in Ghana. Ultimately, I argue that a focus on discourse not only provides insight into how AGRA conceptualizes agricultural transformation, but also how AGRA pursues agronomic, political, and social changes in the countries in which it intervenes.

Endless modernisation: Power and knowledge in the Green Morocco Plan

In 2008, in the aftermath of the World Food Crisis and in a context of an unfolding New Green Revolution for Africa, Morocco launched the Green Morocco Plan to ‘modernise’ its agricultural sector, thereby making the latter the main driver for economic growth and for the alleviation of rural poverty. Yet, the technicist-productivist rationale of the Green Morocco Plan, characteristic of New Green Revolution modernisation schemes, renders any positive socio-ecological outcome unlikely. Hence, recent studies of the Green Morocco Plan have focused on its impacts on food security, inequality and environment. However, how the Green Morocco Plan's rationale is (re)produced within a given set of socio-ecological, material relations has to date attracted relatively little attention. This study, therefore, explores the power-knowledge dynamics of the modernisation discourse within the Green Morocco Plan as a driver of socio-ecological change. Bringing together insights from political ecology, critical development and agri-food studies, we show how the entangled set of ideological, material, political and technical processes embodied within the Green Morocco Plan favours a reductionist view of agricultural development as increasing yields and profits. In so doing, such a view perpetuates efforts to ‘modernise’ smallholder/family farming.

Serving “the Uses of Life”: Gender, History, and Food Security in a Cassava Value Chain Scheme

AbstractGengenbach, Comé, and Nhabinde historicize women’s responses to an agricultural “value chain” in Zavala, Mozambique. Inspired by the Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A), the initiative aims to reduce hunger by converting cassava to industrial use for SABMiller’s Impala beer. Women chafed at the proposed remaking of an agrarian foodway long anchored by this edible commodity. Cassava’s inseparable dietary and market value in precolonial times intensified under Portuguese rule even as colonizers disdained it as a feminine “subsistence” crop and then claimed its commercial potential. Weaponizing this gendered binary yet needing women’s support, the Impala scheme has struggled to achieve GR4A food security goals.

Lost in Translation: Pro-Poor Development in The Green Revolution for Africa

Lost in Translation: Pro-Poor Development in The Green Revolution for Africa

Commentary on the 2020 annual report and the false promises of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

Commentary on the 2020 annual report and the false promises of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

Africa's “Seed” Revolution and Value Chain Constraints to Early Generation Seeds Commercialization and Adoption in Ghana

The study aims to deepen understanding of how Early Generation Seeds value chain constraints impede commercialization and adoption of High Yielding Varieties (HYV) or improved Maize seeds by smallholders in Ghana within the broader strategies of a “Green Revolution for Africa”. Using qualitative and quantitative information obtained through one-on-one interviews with 15 key informants, a household survey from 110 smallholder farmers and document reviews, we discuss constraints and bottlenecks engendered by value chain structures, processes and mechanisms in Ghana's formal seed distribution system. Seven main challenges were identified that undermine trust and hinder the expansion of HYVs: (1) the limited capacity of public institutions, (2) constrained capacity of the emerging private sector, (3) a lack of well-defined, fair and enforceable contracts between stakeholders in the delivery system, (4) land-tenure limitations, (5) poor forecasting of farmers' demands for seeds by research institutions and seed producers, (6) sparse marketing arrangements for improved maize seeds, and (7) concentration of power to control seed supply in the hands of few institutions. We argue these seven issues weaken power asymmetry within the maize seed value chain's governance mechanism to create nodal points that give prominence to key public institutions, NGOs, and research institutions who control the production and distribution of improved seeds. Ultimately, trust among actors and its value chain outputs is undermined, negatively affecting the commercialization, availability, and adoption of improved seeds. Moving forward, upgrading the maize seed value chain must be pursued through targeted public and private sector relationships that acknowledge diverse actors' critical roles in the value chain.

Deployment of High Iron Beans technology in Zimbabwe: An outcome case study report. TAAT MEL working document no. 001

Deployment of High Iron Beans technology in Zimbabwe: An outcome case study report. TAAT MEL working document no. 001

The Rhetoric and Farmers’ Lived Realities of the Green Revolution in Africa: Case Study of the Brong Ahafo Region in Ghana

This paper presents a political ecological analysis of the drivers and impacts of Green Revolution technologies – including improved seeds, chemical fertiliser and other agrochemicals – in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. We identify national government, foreign investment and philanthro-capital as key drivers in shaping both narratives and uptake of Green Revolution technologies at the local level. Drawing from interviews and focus groups, our findings demonstrate that Green Revolution technologies deliver a range of negative local-level socio-ecological impacts, including increasing the overall costs of production, as well as exacerbating poverty and inequality amongst farmers. Our findings demonstrate the disconnection between claims that Green Revolution technologies increase food security and income, and lived experiences of farmers.

Development assistance and Boserupian intensification under geopolitical isolation: The political ecology of a crop-livestock integration project in Burundi

While the New Green Revolution for Africa, a donor supported approach emphasizing high external input agriculture, has been in vogue in many African countries, politically isolated states like Burundi face a different set of constraints and opportunities. Due to political irregularities, international human rights concerns, and tensions with its neighbors, Burundi has been increasingly isolated from international markets. This isolation, combined with poor households more limited access to credit, means that agricultural development actors must consider different approaches to improving agricultural production and household food security. One such initiative, known as the Crop Livestock Integration Project (CLiP), focused on crop-livestock integration and intensification using locally available and affordable resources. An assessment conducted by the author in late 2016 suggests that CLiP was promoting an agroecological model of pro-poor, Boserupian intensification that makes sense in a place like Burundi. While this innovation was occurring under very challenging political economic circumstances in Burundi, and was contested within the International Crop Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) hierarchy, it may serve as a model for promoting resilience and food security at the community level in a variety of contexts. This case is also an interesting example of how agricultural development approaches are often co-produced as their conception and implementation are modified across multiple scales, and how agricultural development knowledge is contested or subverted within an international development institution.

A green revolution in sub‐Saharan Africa? The transformation of Ethiopia's agricultural sector

AbstractAs the widespread pessimism about African agriculture has receded, policies for a green revolution in Africa are again called for. This study explores the presence of a national‐level green revolution in Ethiopia and finds that an Ethiopian green revolution has taken place since the mid‐1990s, mainly among staple‐growing smallholders in agroecologically favourable areas and that the state has played a central role in this transformation via public spending on agriculture. It concludes that there is scope for states in today's low‐income countries to take a leading role in the transformation of their agricultural sectors.

Securitizing the Climate Crisis: Racial Geographies of Empire and the Agri-Fintech Frontier

Securitizing the Climate Crisis:Racial Geographies of Empire and the Agri-Fintech Frontier Aaron Eddens (bio) I was at the 2014 World Food Prize Conference when I first heard about a novel insurance technology designed to cover millions of farmers on the frontlines of the climate crisis. I had gone to the conference—the annual gathering in Des Moines, Iowa, centered upon the bestowal of the self-described "Nobel Prize in food and agriculture"—to learn how, backed by the U.S. government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest agricultural biotechnology/seed companies were working to cultivate a "Green Revolution in Africa." They were targeting the continent's tens of millions of "smallholder farmers," who farm small plots of land largely outside of commercial seed markets. The most important crop for these farmers—and the focus of the Green Revolution projects I had traveled to Des Moines to research—was maize. So I was particularly struck by the argument of a panel called "the smallholder's lifeline," that the key to bringing Africa's smallholders into commercial maize markets was to "bundle" seed sales with a kind of microinsurance called weather index insurance. Marco Ferroni, the executive director of the Syngenta Foundation, the philanthropic branch of the third largest ag-biotech company, described how farmers in rural Kenya used their cell phones to enroll in his organization's index insurance project. As he explained, when farmers bought a five-kg bag of maize seed from their local agro-dealer, they would now find a small card with a code that they could enter into their phone, linking their phone to a nearby weather station and activating the insurance policy. If the weather station measured less than a predetermined amount of rain during the growing season, the farmer would receive an automatic payment for the value of the seeds through Kenya's [End Page 63] mobile money system, M-Pesa. The Syngenta Foundation was finding that insured farmers were much more likely to buy hybrid seeds, such as those sold by Syngenta. Ferroni explained that index insurance could also prove lucrative for multinational reinsurance companies (insurers who insure insurers), such as SwissRe and MunichRe. Most of the "risk" captured in his foundation's project was transferred to these companies, in which it held the potential to be securitized as a tradeable financial instrument—pooled together with risk captured from thousands of other microinsurance policies to form an insurance-linked security. For farmers, seed companies, and insurers, index insurance promised to be a triple win. The Syngenta Foundation's pilot project led to two Nairobi-based for-profit companies, Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise (ACRE) and Pula. These agricultural financial technology (agri-fintech) companies use digital platforms such as M-Pesa to link millions of smallholder farmers to broader data and risk transfer markets. They have garnered industry awards and glowing coverage in Western media outlets, such as The New York Times, The Financial Times, and The Economist (Bird 2018; "In Africa, Agricultural Insurance Often Falls on Stony Ground" 2018; Mayersohn 2019). In the words of Pula's mission statement, it aims to use "technology and parametric insurance to insure the previously unbanked, uninsured, untapped market of 1.5 billion smallholders worldwide" (Pula n.d.). This approach exemplifies the broader development paradigm of "financial inclusion" in which an increasing number of financial companies are using new digital technologies to tap into frontier markets (Gabor and Brooks 2017). Pula and ACRE's agri-fintech expansion operates along two fronts: first, they transform large pools of previously uninsured "risk" into commodities that can be traded by reinsurance companies, and second, they harvest data from farmers' phones, which they can sell to their "upstream" agribusiness partners. To date, both companies have partnered with some of the largest seed companies working in the region, including multinationals such as Corteva (the agricultural branch of the company resulting from the 2017 mega-merger of Dow and DuPont) and Bayer (which became the world's largest agricultural biotechnology company when it acquired Monsanto in 2018). Both companies explicitly brand their financial services in terms of the climate crisis, marketing their insurance products as tools...

Rethinking “food security” in Africa

First paragraphs: In Food Security for Rural Africa: Feeding the Farmers First, Terry Leahy makes what he knows is an unpopular argument: that subsistence—not com­mercial—agriculture is the surest path to food security. Since the colonial era, government offi­cials—and, later, development agencies—have sought to convert African smallholder farmers into industrial producers. Today, certain proponents of a “new” Green Revolution for Africa are guided by the theory of the agricultural exit, the idea that agri­cultural consolidation is essential for economic growth, and that such consolidation requires a majority of farmers to find off-farm employment. It is in this context that Leahy intervenes and warns that a hypothetical agricultural exit would lead to a population of landless peasants. As an alternative, Leahy argues for reinvestment into subsistence agriculture, what he defines as when “food being produced is distributed without money changing hands” (2019, p. xii). This definition is purposely broad, as it allows Leahy to consider a variety of strategies to strengthen food production at the household level first and to plan for the market second. Such a model, Leahy argues, is not “a traditional relic of past practices,” as some detractors of the phrase “subsistence” often sug­gest, but rather, “a response to current problems” embedded in the current capitalist moment (2019, p. 132). . . .

Who is resilient in Africa’s Green Revolution? Sustainable intensification and Climate Smart Agriculture in Rwanda

Under the banner of a "New Green Revolution for Africa," agricultural intensification programs aim to make smallholder agriculture more productive as well as "climate smart". As with Green Revolutions in Asia and Mexico, agricultural innovations (hybrid seeds, agronomic engineering, market linkages,and increased use of fertilizer and pesticides) are promoted as essential catalysts of agriculture-led economic growth. Intensification programs are now frequently linked to Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), which attempts to build resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while increasing crop yields. This article considers who and what is resilient in Africa’s Green Revolution. We report on a multi-season study of smallholder food producers' experiences with Rwanda’s Crop Intensification Program (CIP) and related policies that aim to commercialize subsistence agriculture while implementing CSA. . We suggest that there are fundamental limits to the climate resilience afforded by CSA and development efforts rooted in Green Revolution thinking. Our findings illustrate that such efforts foreground technology and management adjustments in ways that have reduced smallholder resilience by inhibiting sovereignty over land use, decreasing livelihood flexibility, and constricting resource access. We put forth that rural development policies could better promote climate-resilient livelihoods through: 1) adaptive governance that enables smallholder land use decision-making; 2) support for smallholder food producers’ existing agro-ecological strategies of intensification; 3) participatory approaches to visualize and correct for inequalities in local processes of social-ecological resilence Such considerations are paramount for meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and building climate-resilient food systems.

Agricultural mechanization, environmental degradation, and gendered livelihood implications in northern Ghana

AbstractThis paper draws theoretical insights from political ecology to examine the environmental and livelihood impacts of smallholder agricultural mechanization in Ghana in the context of the ongoing pursuit of a new Green Revolution for Africa. Our findings highlight the complex linkages between agricultural development, environmental degradation, and rural livelihoods. Despite the associated increased returns‐to‐scale in agricultural productivity and enhanced speed in land preparation with tractor‐based mechanization, the clearing of major trees on farmlands as a precondition for obtaining ploughing services encourages land degradation, including the depletion of vital naturally growing tree species—shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) and dawadawa (Parkia biglobosa)—that have critical food provisioning, cultural, and socioeconomic value. The drive towards extensification has further produced competitive forces that fuel the appropriation of previously inalienable communal lands and weakening of longstanding norms that mediate environmental resource conservation and use. This situation is poised to alter customary land governance and the basis on which women assert their rights to land‐based resources including shea and dawadawa. Marginalized women are progressively shifting their livelihood strategies into environmentally unsustainable subsistence activities. This study demonstrates the adverse ecological, socioeconomic, and political impacts of agricultural mechanization when implemented in agrarian societies marked by widespread poverty and pervasive gender inequities. Given the growing centrality of tractors and trees to rural livelihoods, we recommend conservation agriculture for the simultaneous promotion of sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation. Relevant social policies must also be implemented to ameliorate the adverse livelihood impacts of these agrarian reforms.

Farmers’ Seed Systems in Southern Africa: Alternatives to Philanthrocapitalism

Farmer seed systems survive by engaging changing conditions and by sharing seeds and indigenous knowledge. Although the systemic change attracting the most attention as a challenge to farmer seed systems is climate change, another systemic threat needs equally urgent analysis. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) of the Gates Foundation is trying to transform farmer seed systems through ‘business rule’ and ‘business practices’ of philanthrocapitalism. Outlining the trajectories of philanthrocapitalism, this analysis explores fundamental differences in how large foundations are interjecting their private goals into public spaces, while extracting public funds for private use. Although much has been written about philanthrocapitalism in the fields of education and health, this article focusses on its role in farmers’ seed systems. Grounded in Southern Africa, it explains how smallholder farmers are not just resisting the insertion of philanthrocapitalism into their seed systems, but are offering alternatives.

Can improved agricultural technologies spur a green revolution in Africa? A multicountry analysis of seed and fertilizer delivery systems.

Sub-Saharan Africa faces low agricultural productivity amid a confluence of trends that include rapid population growth, climate change, and the rise of the middle class. To raise productivity, governments—in partnership with donors and development organizations—have launched numerous initiatives to encourage the development of sustainable and competitive agricultural input markets. Despite these efforts, markets remain underdeveloped in most countries and access to affordable seeds and fertilizers remains a major challenge for smallholder farmers. This paper explores evidence from recent multicountry analyses of input delivery systems to assess the possibility of a Green Revolution in Africa. It describes use and adoption levels, challenges, policy and regulatory issues, and investments needed to expand smallholder access to these productivity-enhancing agricultural technologies.

Estimating the effect of mineral fertilizer use on Land productivity and income: Evidence from Ghana

Soil infertility is a major challenge that leads to high levels of food insecurity and poverty. Soil infertility has led to the introduction of fertilizer subsidy programs (FSP) across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to increase fertilizer use. However, poor targeting, lack of effective coordination, and within-country and cross-border leakages have the diminished program’s impact. In addition to the subsidy program, integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) has been widely promoted under the Soil Health Project (SHP) by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to increase sustainable food production. This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the impact of mineral fertilizer adoption on land productivity and agricultural income among rice farmers in Ghana. Adoption of mineral fertilizer is influenced by access to off-farm income, years of farming experience, residential status of a farmer, total farm size, use of fallow methods of soil management, and household size. Employing endogenous switching regression and propensity score matching methods and using farm household survey data from northern Ghana, we find that mineral fertilizer use significantly increases land productivity and agricultural income by 55% and 30%, respectively. Our results suggest positive welfare effects of fertilizer use, thus supporting the need to increase farmers’ access to mineral fertilizer by eliminating the bottlenecks with respect to input into the subsidy program to ensure that fertilizers are released to farmers on time and applied in a timely manner to fields to improve overall soil fertility and increase sustainable food production.