Cape Town - As concern for Africa’s food systems and food insecurity grow, civil society, faith groups and farmer leaders reiterated their call for an end to the failed “Green Revolution” in Africa, as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) gathered this week in Kigali, Rwanda.
The call comes as Agra concluded its annual African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), which took place under the theme of “Bold Actions for Resilient Food Systems” to drive the food and agriculture agenda on the continent.
However, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) believes Agra is pushing a development model that reinforces dependency on foreign inputs, including expensive fertiliser that undermines the resilience of African food systems, and which ultimately has not increased farmers’ yields, incomes and food security – despite the huge funding it receives.
AFSA, a united alliance representing the largest network of food producers and faith leaders in Africa, made it clear that the “bold action” they want is for Agra’s donors to stop funding an initiative that has failed to improve productivity, incomes and food security.
The Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (Safcei) climate justice co-ordinator, Gabriel Manyangadze, said: “The Green Revolution in Africa is an agricultural initiative whose goal is to increase incomes and improve food security for 30 million smallholder farm households in 11 African countries by 2021.
“However, two unrelated evaluations carried out on the project came to the same conclusion – that this project failed. It was noted that neither income nor food security improved,” Manyangadze said.
The food producer networks and their allies demanded a decisive shift away from imported fossil fuel-based fertilisers and chemicals, and towards self-sufficient, ecological farming that revitalises soil and protects ecosystems.
Agra’s donors include the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the governments of the UK, Germany and others.
Oakland Institute executive director Anuradha Mittal said it was shocking that a number of international donors continued to prioritise corporate profits over people, leaving the necessary transition to sustainable agro-ecological practices underfunded.
Manyangadze said: “AFSA intends to show that sustainable food security for smallholder farmers must be a priority for African governments, Africa must adopt an environmentally-friendly food system that is locally supported and not dependent on foreign inputs and alien technology.”
Agra board chair Hailemariam Dessalegn said: “Food systems transformation is key to economic transformation. We need to take bold actions urgently. This calls for new, stronger, innovative and strategic leadership to ensure that food systems are more resilient.”