Feeding Africa requires a revolution in our minds and our farms

With growing populations and increasing demand for food, Africa can ill afford to be at the mercy of global food prices, which have risen nearly 75 percent within a decade. Food imports now total well over US$20 billion per year, including about US$2 billion of food aid. The alternative to this dependency is to significantly increase the productivity of tens of millions of smallholder farmers, and thus end hunger and lay the foundation for economic development across the continent. Increased farm yield will allow poor farmers to market their surpluses and generate needed incomes. Both objectives can only be attained by a home grown African Green Revolution -- and this is the goal of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). We know the road ahead is long and challenging. Cereal yields in Africa are a quarter of the world average. The continent’s soils are among the worst in the world. Markets are poorly developed. There is underinvestment in rural infrastructure. And farmers pay dearly for the lack of information available to them – many don’t know the retail or wholesale price for their crops. Surmounting these obstacles will take strong partnerships: among governments, scientists, farmers, national research organizations and private business. African governments are forging ahead, and the global community is increasingly attuned to the need for an African Green Revolution. African governments passed the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), which aims to achieve 6 percent annual growth rates in agriculture and commits governments to spending 10 percent of national budgets on agriculture to enhance food security and reduce rural poverty. The World Bank, in its 2008 World Development Report, states that growth originating in the agricultural sector does four times more for the incomes of extremely poor people than does growth in other parts of the economy. A green revolution in Africa will not be the world’s first—one began in Asia some decades ago, and succeeded in greatly boosting agricultural outputs and improving food security, rural employment and incomes. An African Green Revolution, however, will necessarily differ in significant ways from that in Asia. It requires that we start from African realities to meet African needs. Africa’s Green Revolution must put a high priority on conserving the continent’s wealth of agricultural biodiversity, and using that biodiversity to develop high-yielding and resilient crop varieties that are capable of coping with changing environments: droughts, floods, disease, pests and even weeds that suck the very life from our crops. In addition to improved seeds, African smallholder farmers need to bring their soils back to life. Today, 75 percent of Africa’s farmlands are severely depleted of the nutrients that crops need to grow and of the organic matter that gives soil structure and water retention capacity. A continent-wide effort to replenish African soils is needed if smallholder farmers are to significantly improve their yields. Last month, AGRA announced a US$180 million, five-year program to support the efforts of African farmers to restore soil fertility. This effort will be based on a balanced approach that assesses local soil and water resources, and considers how organic matter (such as crop residues and manure), appropriate fertilisers, cropping systems, and local knowledge can work in concert to create highly productive and environmentally sustainable approaches to soil revitalization. It will require improving farmers’ access to fertilisers, and to knowledge about their efficient and environmentally safe use. To reclaim degraded soils, governments need policies that effectively support soil fertility and protect natural resources. Africa’s agricultural revolution must also be an off-farm revolution, with government policies formulated and implemented to support the development of markets, roads, and other infrastructure, and of small-scale low-cost water management projects to support millions of farmers who rely on erratic rains. Appropriate water management will also create opportunities for off-season production that will generate additional incomes for farmers. All of this will require forging public-private partnerships, in Africa and globally, to support comprehensive change across the agricultural value chain. Such change must also encompass programmes that enhance agricultural education, research, and extension, build local food processing capacity, and improve smallholder farmers’ access to credit and to affordable farm inputs. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa is building partnerships needed to accomplish these goals, and we look forward to joining efforts with the many organizations and individuals committed to the same. A new global focus on fostering a uniquely African Green Revolution will play a catalytic role in ending widespread poverty and hunger, and free Africa from its unsustainable dependency on food imports and food aid. Nothing less will support African economic development and stability, ensure Africa’s environmental health, and transform a hungry Africa into an asset for global food security. The author is the president of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)