By Food First, December 2007 [edited]

A number of initiatives from multinational companies, foundations and politicians are pushing a “new green revolution” in Africa. One of them is Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). In 2006, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a joint $150 million Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to save Africa from hunger. AGRA is actually breaking ground for a larger network of chemical, seed, fertilizer companies and Green Revolution institutions seeking to industrialize African agriculture as they have already done in the U.S. and in large parts of Latin America and Asia. AGRA’s high-profile campaign for a new Green Revolution, headed by Kofi Annan, is designed to attract private investment, enroll African governments, and convince African farmers to buy hybrid seeds and chemical fertilizers. AGRA is laying the foundation for researchers, institutions, and African farmers to introduce GMO crops—not only for rice, wheat and maize, but also for cassava, plantain and other African food crops.

The first Green Revolution introduced by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations in 1960-1990 deepened the divide between rich and poor farmers and degraded tropical agro-ecosystems, exposing already vulnerable farmers to increased environmental risk. It led to loss of seed/plant varieties and agro-biodiversity, which is the basis for smallholder livelihood, security and regional environmental sustainability. While production per capita increased in Asia and Latin America, the percentage of hungry people increased even more. Because the Green Revolution responds to corporate interests, rather than the needs of African farmers, the new green revolution, based on an industrial model, is likely to worsen—not improve—the condition of Africa’s small farmers and to increase the number of hungry Africans.
The AGRA-led Green Revolution not only threatens the richness of African traditional agriculture, it ignores (and is attempting to co-opt) the many successful African agricultural alternatives including sustainable agriculture, agro-forestry, pastoralism, integrated pest management, farmer-led plant breeding, sustainable watershed management and many other agroecological approaches. Because AGRA is but one—highly visible component of a wider industrial push, attendees realized that they need to decide where to put their energies, and be prepared for the divisive nature of involvement with AGRA.

At its core, the Green Revolution undermines Africa’s food systems and food sovereignty: people’s right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.

http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1807