Green Revolution In Africa Research Articles

From cradle to chain? Gendered struggles for cassava commercialisation in Mozambique

ABSTRACT This article draws on survey data, interviews and archival research to analyse women's mixed responses to a cassava commercialisation scheme in Zavala district, Mozambique. As an example of the “Green Revolution for Africa” (GR4A) approach to development, which holds that women farmers’ participation in “value chains” will reduce rural poverty and hunger, this initiative seeks to transform cassava from a food staple into raw material for cassava-based commercial beer. The study evaluates the contradictory claims and outcomes of the GR4A model, as the bumpy roll-out of the value chain in Zavala reveals the risks of overlooking the historical context and gendered knowledge in neoliberal development interventions.

International Collaboration in Plant Breeding Education

International Collaboration in Plant Breeding Education

Towards a green modernization development discourse: the new green revolution in Africa

<p>Since the Rio+20 conference, 'greening' economies and growth has been key in international politics. Leading policy actors and businesses frame the emerging green economy as an opportunity to realize a triple-bottom line – people, planet and profit – and support sustainable development. In practice, two key trends stand out: in the global North, the main component of the green shift seems to imply technological and market-based solutions in the renewable energy sector. While this is also important in the global South, here green economy implementation is often interpreted as environmental protection along with modernization of, and shifts in access to and control over, natural resources ('green sectors'). In the case of the latter, combined with persisting high rates of poverty, we claim that the post-Rio+20 context has revitalized a 'green' version of <em>modernization </em>to become the leading discourse and approach within international development; namely <em>green modernization. </em>A wide range of development initiatives across the global South – with significant support from international businesses amidst a general private turn of aid – are framed in this light. We use the new, Green Revolution in Africa to illustrate how modernization discourses are reasserted under the green economy. What is new at the current conjuncture is the way in which powerful actors adopt and promote green narratives around long-standing modernization ideas. They recast the modernization trope as 'green.' In particular, we focus our discussion on three linked components; technology and 'productivism', the role of capital and 'underutilized' resources, and, lastly, mobility of land and people.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> green economy; green modernization; the new Green Revolution in Africa; agri-business; climate smart agriculture; development discourse</p>

Philanthropy as a creative strategy for international development Case study: Rockefeller foundation initiative's for AGRA

The Rockefeller Foundation has introduced itself a global philanthropic organization (foundation) and ‘old players’ in philanthropy’s arena. This idea has continued since existing of The Rockefeller Foundation in 1913 until now. This paper discusses about how philanthropy is taken over as a creative and effective strategy to realized development goals in the developing countries. One of the most influential philanthropic organizations in global arena is The Rockefeller Foundation, this foundation have so many strategic plan to accelerate development in the developing countries, such as their support on the ‘Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)’ that began in 2006. This program has become a creative strategy to realized food security and economic improvement in Africa.

Traditional agriculture in transition: examining the impacts of agricultural modernization on smallholder farming in Ghana under the new Green Revolution

ABSTRACTFollowing the renewed effort at achieving a new green revolution for Africa, emphasis has been placed on modernizing smallholder agriculture through the deployment of improved inputs especially mechanized technologies. In Ghana, the government has in the last decade emphasized the provision of subsidized mechanized ploughing services to farmers alongside a rapidly growing private sector tractor service market. While mechanized technology adoption rates have increased rapidly, the deployment of these technologies has been without critical analysis of the impacts on production patterns and local agrarian systems. This paper examines the distributional impacts of agriculture mechanization on cropping patterns and farm sizes of smallholder farmers in northern Ghana using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, and semi-structured interviews with smallholder farmers (n=60). Specifically, comparative analysis of the field sizes and cropping patterns of participant farmers prior to and after the adoption of mechanized technologies was conducted. In-depth interviews were used to contextualize the experiences of smallholder farmers toward understanding how mechanization may be impacting traditional agriculture. Our findings reveal a mechanization paradox in which farm sizes are expanding, while cropping patterns are shifting away from traditional staple crops (pearl millet and sorghum bicolor) to market-oriented crops (maize, rice and groundnuts). This transition we argue, has adverse implications on the cultural dimension of food security, the organization of social life, and climate change adaptation. We recommend a retooling of the current agricultural policy focus to ensure context sensitivity for a more robust battle against food insecurity.

ARE FARMERS SEARCHING FOR AN AFRICAN GREEN REVOLUTION? EXPLORING THE SOLUTION SPACE FOR AGRICULTURAL INTENSIFICATION IN SOUTHERN MALI

SUMMARYDevelopment actors, including the African Union, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and bilateral donors, promote a technology-driven sustainable intensification of agriculture as a way to feed a growing world population and reduce rural poverty. A broader view of smallholder agriculture in the context of rural livelihoods suggests that technological solutions alone are unlikely to meet these goals. Analysis of the solution space for agricultural interventions in a high potential area of southern Mali shows that intensification can lift most farm households out of extreme poverty and guarantee their food self-sufficiency. However, the most effective options do not fit the usual definition of sustainable intensification, increasing production per unit land while protecting the natural environment. Cropland expansion combined with the good yields seen in on-station experiments can nearly eliminate extreme poverty, while the biggest impact may come from taking advantage of peak seasonal prices for crops like groundnut. Other profitable alternatives can include meat production with small ruminants or sales of milk from cows. However, off-farm employment opportunities like gold mining outperform currently attainable agricultural options in terms of profitability. Options for rural households should fit within the households’ socio-ecological niches and respond to their priorities in order to be successful. Given the relatively low impact of (sustainable) intensification technologies alone, a rethinking of the role of agricultural research in development is needed in order to align interventions with farmer priorities and meet development goals.

Contested commons: Agricultural modernization, tenure ambiguities and intra-familial land grabbing in Ghana

Agricultural land in northern Ghana is a common pool resource predominantly governed by longstanding customary land tenure provisions. Following the renewed emphasis at achieving a new green revolution for Africa since the last decade, the government of Ghana has prioritized the provision of improved land preparation technologies to smallholder farmers. Although the uptake of these technologies has introduced speed and efficiency in land preparation, there are concerns about the impacts on customary land tenure systems. Drawing on the experiences of smallholder farmers (n = 60) in northern Ghana using in-depth interviews, we examine the dynamics in contemporary agricultural land access and governance following decades of progressive agricultural modernization. Our findings show that agricultural modernization has intensified agricultural land use and exposed the customary land governance system to more rival claims over agricultural commons that were previously owned and cultivated collectively under the extended family system. Given the current ambiguities in the interpretation of customary tenure and concomitant intra-familial land grabbing among smallholder farmers which we term ‘intimate dispossession’, most farmers have resorted to diverse personal tenure protection strategies towards enhancing their land use rights at the expense of co-family members. We advocate a land reform that prioritizes formal registration of agricultural lands to avoid future ambiguities in ownership and a cycle of farmland take-overs. With increasing pressure from other competing land uses, land banking should be prioritized to ensure tenure security for smallholder farmers, particularly weaker social groups and individuals within families who are often at risk of intra-familial land grabbing.

White science and indigenous maize: the racial logics of the Green Revolution

ABSTRACTIndigenous maize from Mexico has become crucial for a wave of contemporary agricultural development initiatives seeking to cultivate a ‘Green Revolution for Africa’. Plant breeders developing disease-resistant hybrid maize for Africa use cutting edge technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 to mine the genomes of maize collected in Mexico 75 years ago, during the Green Revolution’s earliest incarnation. Historicizing this transnational linkage, this paper argues that Green Revolution science appropriates indigenous maize through racial logics rooted in whiteness. In the 1940s, American scientists sent by the Rockefeller Foundation to improve Mexico’s agriculture negotiated their own racial subjectivity through their encounters with Mexico’s indigenous people. In the process, they constructed a racial hierarchy that equated whiteness with scientific superiority and indigeneity with underdevelopment. This racialization undergirded a maize program led by E.J. Wellhausen that collected and catalogued hundreds of varieties of Mexico’s maize – and then distributed them to American seed companies. Wellhausen’s seeds formed the genetic backbone for subsequent Green Revolution projects. The ‘white science’ he embodied expanded as the Revolution sought out nonwhite agriculture across the global South. Today, the Green Revolution’s racial logics are re-articulated along its geographical and technological frontier, as indigenous maize provides the seeds for the African Green Revolution.

Limits of the New Green Revolution for Africa: Reconceptualising gendered agricultural value chains

In order to address food insecurity, the New Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A) promotes tighter integration of African smallholder farmers, especially women, into formal markets via value chains to improve farmers’ input access and to encourage the sale of crop surpluses. This commentary offers a theoretical and practical critique of the GR4A model, drawing on early findings from a five‐year study of value chain initiatives in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Mozambique. It highlights the limitations of a model that views heightened market interactions as uniformly beneficial for smallholder farmers. We challenge the notion that there is a broadly similar and replicable process for the construction of markets and the development of gender‐sensitive value chains in all recipient countries. Instead we build upon the feminist network political ecology and coproduction literatures to conceptualise value chains as complex assemblages co‐produced by a broad set of actors, including socially differentiated farmers.

A climate for commerce: the political agronomy of conservation agriculture in Zambia

The promotion of conservation agriculture (CA) for smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa is subject to ongoing scholarly and public debate regarding the evidence-base and the agenda-setting power of involved stakeholders. We undertake a political analysis of CA in Zambia that combines a qualitative case study of a flagship CA initiative with a quantitative analysis of a nationally representative dataset on agricultural practices. This analysis moves from an investigation of the knowledge politics to a study of how the political agendas of the actors involved are shaping agrarian practices. From its initial focus on CA as soil conservation and sustainable agriculture, the framing of the initiative has evolved to accommodate shifting trends in the policy arena. In tandem with the increased focus on climate adaptation, we see an increased emphasis on private sector-led modernisation. The initiative has shifted its target group from the poorest smallholders to prospective commercial farmers, and has forged connections between its farmer-to-farmer extension network and private input suppliers and service providers. The link between CA and input intensification is reflected in national statistics as a significantly higher usage of herbicides, pesticides and mineral fertilizer on fields under CA tillage compared to other fields. We argue that the environmental and participation agendas are used to buttress CA as an environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural development strategy, while the prevailing practice is the result of a common vision for a private sector-led agricultural development shared between the implementing organisation, the donor and international organisations promoting a new green revolution in Africa.

Effectiveness of combined application of Kodjari phosphate rock, water soluble phosphorus fertilizer and manure in a Ferric Lixisol in the centre west of Burkina Faso

ABSTRACTIncreasing soil phosphorus and organic matter content for crop production while reducing the cost of production are required to facilitate the achievement of green revolution in Africa. Field and pot experiments were laid out during 2012 and 2013 to assess the effects of combined application of Kodjari phosphate rock (PR) and water soluble phosphorus on sorghum yields, P uptake and Lixisol characteristics in the centre west of Burkina Faso. Five P fertilizers treatments (zero P, 100% TSP (triple super phosphate), 100% PR, 50% PR + 50% TSP, 75% PR + 25% TSP) and two cow manure treatments (zero, 5 t ha−1) were tested. In field experiment, 50% PR + 50% TSP was as effective as 100% TSP in increasing sorghum yield above the control by 30% in 2012 and 50% in 2013 and P uptake by 30% in both years. Manure had an additive effect on phosphorus fertilizers in increasing sorghum yields and P uptake. In pot experiment, increases of Ca uptake, soil pH and microbial P were observed with the application of 50% PR + 50% TSP. Our results suggest that formulation of fertilizer combining phosphate rock and mineral P would improve sorghum yields and income of smallholders.

The ‘philanthropic’ gene: biocapital and the new green revolution in Africa

Climate change and population growth have prompted calls for African countries to embrace a ‘new Green Revolution’ in order to promote food security. What is ‘new’ about this new Green Revolution? What configurations of capital, the state, agribusiness, and the law define this period of agricultural transition? In this new Green Revolution, I argue, there is a proliferation of new forms of capital – biocapital and philanthrocapital – that integrate biotechnology with philanthropy to create market value. These shifts are engendered by philanthropic giving, in the form of donated genetic material for the development of ‘pro-poor’ biotechnology which normalises seed as commodity, and legislative reform that renders seed patentable material.

Molecular Characterization and Pathogenicity of Meloidogyne incognita on Tomato Cultivars (Solanum lycopersicon L.)

The study was conducted to determine the distribution of the common Meloidogyne species in and around the Ibadan area in Oyo State, south‐west Nigeria, West Africa using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), as well as determine the effect of Meloidogyne incognita on five tomato cultivars. The locations included Akobo 7°25′49.13″N; 3°56′ 55.44″E (a peri‐urban vegetable farm), Ijaye 7°50′48.60″N; 3°34′11.23″E, National Institute for Horticultural Research (NIHORT) 7°24′19.13″N; 3°50′57.01″E, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture(IITA), Ibadan 7°29′52.05″N; 3°54′ 19.16″E and inoculum plots of the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, University of Ibadan 7°27′4.14″N; 3°53′ 49.19″E. DNA was extracted from the bulk juveniles, according to modified (Dellaporta et al., 1983). Identification of species was carried out using Meloidogyne species universal primer 194/195 and specific SCAR primers MIF/MIR. The nucleic acid was size‐fractioned in 1% agarose gel, stained with 4 μl ethidium bromide and captured by the ultraviolet light. Meloidogyne incognita produced amplification fragments of 720‐bp and 999‐bp for 194/195 and MIF/MIR primers, respectively. Meloidogyne incognita and javanica were the predominant species of root‐knot nematodes identified from the collected samples. The pathogenicity of Meloidogyne incognita was evaluated at different egg mass inoculum levels on five tomato cultivars in the screenhouse in (IITA). All growth parameters such as plant height, leaf number, and yield responded negatively with increasing inoculum levels for all the cultivars except Small Fry VFN and Celebrity cultivars which were found to be resistant based on (Soriano et al., 2000) resistance rating. The results also showed that the Ibadan Local cultivar was the most susceptible to M. incognita. The reproductive factor of the nematode (RF) was determined according to (Oostenbrink, 1966). The root galling index was rated on a 0–5 scale, where 0=0% galled roots; 1= < 10%, 2= 10–25%, 3= 25–50%,4=50–75% and 5= > 75% galled roots (Soriano et al., 2000). All data were analyzed by analysis of variance using SAS 9.2 version and means were separated using Least Significant Difference (LSD). In conclusion, the common meloidogyne species distribution in south‐west Nigeria was determined and this is very important in the formulation of management tactics against this pathogen.Support or Funding InformationThe research was supported by Alliance For A Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

English

Farmers in Africa have not been fully convinced to invest in fertilizer due to uncertainty on returns to investment. This is despite the fact that, more than two-thirds of people in Sub-Saharan Africa rely on agriculture for employment with many living on small farms earning less than $1 per day. Usage of fertilizer has remained low and stagnant hence the yields in have been persistently lower than other parts of the world. To address the plight of the smallholder farmers’ inability to optimize productivity in fertilizer use, a collaborative research project Optimization of Fertilizer Recommendations in African (OFRA) 2013 to 2016 was designed through the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) funding, implemented by Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) and science support by the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL). Broad objective was to develop AEZs and crop specific fertilizer recommendations for 13 SSA countries and development of fertilizer optimization approach for smallholder farmers to maximize returns to investment. This paper describes the optimization approach and how it works for farmers benefits. About 65 agro ecological zones (AEZs) specific fertilizer optimization tools (FOTs) for 14 important SSA crops (54%) were developed. Two complimentary tools the paper too and nutrient substitution table were developed to work concurrently with the FOT. Key words: Optimization, profitability, farmers, approach, Africa, fertilizer optimization tools (FOTs), agro ecological zones (AEZs).

Against Food Security: On Forms of Care and Fields of Violence

This article addresses recent changes to the policy landscape on global food security. It argues that a new consensus is emerging on how to tackle (or more hubristically “end”) global hunger and spur agricultural development. The consensus I speak of is evident in recent briefings by the World Economic Forum (especially its “New Vision for Agriculture”), the “New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition”, initiated by the G-8 (now G-7), the Grow Africa network, the US government's “Feed the Future” programme, the philanthropy-led Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, not to mention the many flagship reports emanating from the international financial institutions as well as key statements from global food retailers and leading agribusinesses. The article argues that this “new vision” for global agriculture is deeply problematic. Indeed, the projected “solutions”—in so far as they aim to radically transform agricultural life, especially in Africa—may well cause more harm than good. To put this argument more forcefully: what today is commonly called “food security” is perhaps better seen as a way of subjugating the poor under the pretence of doing them good.

Agriculture, Food Production, and Rural Land Use in Advanced Placement® Human Geography

ABSTRACT‘‘Agriculture, Food, and Rural Land Use” constitutes a major part of the AP Human Geography course outline. This article explores challenging topics to teach, emerging research trends in agricultural geography, and sample teaching approaches for concretizing abstract topics. It addresses content identified as “essential knowledge” in the course description, including the role of women in food production, the interdependence among regions of food production and consumption, the prospects for a new Green Revolution in Africa, environmental consequences of agricultural practices, and the changing nature of contemporary agriculture.

Developing Lowland Rice Germplasm with Resistance to Multiple Biotic Stresses through Anther Culture in Uganda

The lowland rice genotypes grown in Uganda were introduced in the 1970s. These genotypes (now landraces) are threatened by multiple biotic stresses namely; Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RYMV) disease, Bacterial Leaf Streak(BLS). Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB), and Rice Blast (BL). There are currently no rice lines with multiple resistance to these stresses although attempts have been made to develop them through hybridization involving cultivated, local and introduced lines and four varieties with tolerance to RYMV have been released. The use of potential resistance donor such as the traditional African cultivated rice, Oryza glaberrima, could be an alternative approach to furnish multiple resistance to the cultivated rice. The rice germplasm developed from a cross of an Oryza glaberrima from Niger Delta and Milyang23, a high-yielding Korean rice variety were evaluated for multiple resistance in Uganda as a Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI)-Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) joint cooperative project, “Enhancement of High Yielding Rice Germplasm in African Countries through Anther Culture Breeding”. Milyang23 was back crossed 4 times with Oryza. glaberrima and fixed through anther culture in Korea. An evaluation of 50 lines generated showed that up to 98%, 92%, 88% and 88% of the test plants showed resistance to the RYMV, BLS, BLB and BL diseases, respectively. There was no symptoms of the four diseases in 74% of the genotypes tested. The plants that showed symptoms of the three diseases had scores of not more than 3 on a 1 to 9 scale. This preliminary finding demonstrates that these generations of rice lines could help solving the current problem of susceptibility to multiple diseases.

Modernização da Agricultura em Moçambique: determinantes da renda agrícola

O objetivo deste trabalho é verificar até que ponto as tecnologias oriundas da revolução verde foram efetivamente adotadas na África Subsaariana e, nos casos em que foram adotadas, se tiveram sucesso em melhorar a renda e a produtividade da agricultura. Para este fim, o trabalho faz primeiramente um breve resumo do estado das artes da revolução verde na África, mostrando quais países avançaram mais e como se correlaciona a utilização de fertilizantes químicos com os aumentos de produtividade. Faz-se também uma discussão sobre as características do processo de intensificação num caso em particular, o de Moçambique. Finalmente, com base nos microdados do Tratado de Inquérito Agrícola (TIA), se testa um modelo econométrico de MQO que visa avaliar os determinantes da renda agrícola e, em particular, do uso de fertilizantes químicos.

English

This study seeks to explore the significant contributions of the new philanthropy towards improving the conditions of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan African, smallholder farmers’ understanding of philanthropy and to investigate the relationship that exists between philanthropy and smallholder farmers. The research is designed to uncover the needs and drivers of both philanthropy and smallholder farmers in relation to their interaction and the fulfilment of the philanthropic contract they have entered into. The main objective of the thesis is to consider the potential of philanthropy to rural transformation for poverty reduction. It focus is the involvement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in rural development and poverty reduction in Ghana. Since 2006 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation) has dedicated $1.7 billion to assisting smallholder farmers. The bulk of this investment has been delivered through programmes associated with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which is also supported by the Rockefeller Foundation(Thompson, 2012). This study observed an inherent discrepancies and organisational miscalculations that have adverse influence on the effective collaboration and implementation of philanthropic support to the selected farmers. Untimely release of farming inputs as well as exceedingly unfavourable conditions for the attractions of loans makes it difficult for smooth farming. This exercise also established that both men and women intercrop their farms to ensure household food security and income. Household decisions on which medium of farming to pursue and on use of the income from farming are generally taken by men. Due to these, this research emphasise that philanthropic offering in Ghana should be looked at dispassionately bearing in mind the socio-culturally diverse nature of the country itself as well as key environmental factors that hugely contribute to poverty. KEYWORD:Philanthropy, Poverty Reduction, Green Revolution, Rural Development, Ghana

Interrogating the technocratic (neoliberal) agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa

This paper introduces a special issue that critically examines the dominant technocratic, neoliberal agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa. We briefly review the history of African agricultural and food security policy in the post-colonial period in order to contextualise the productionist approach embedded in the New Green Revolution for Africa, a strategy comprising the use of hybrid seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides to boost crop production. This approach is underpinned by a new and unprecedented level of public–private partnerships as donors actively work to promote the private sector and build links between African farmers, input suppliers, agro-dealers, agro-processors, and retailers. On the consumer end, increased supermarket penetration into poorer neighbourhoods is proffered as a solution to urban food insecurity. The papers in the special issue complicate understandings of this new approach and raise serious questions about its effectiveness as a strategy for increasing food production and alleviating hunger across the continent.