John Mbaria
12 May 2008
Nairobi — A grand initiative to give food production and agricultural development in Africa a shot in the arm got underway last week with experts drawn from all over the world making suggestions on what needs to be given priority to achieve a Green Revolution in Africa.
Held in the city of Salzburg in Austria, the conference dubbed Towards a 'Green Revolution' in Africa, was part of a series of events meant to help millions of African smallholder farmers liberate themselves from extreme poverty.
The participants focused on what African countries and emerging continent-wide initiatives like the Kofi Annan-led Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) need to do to make the "revolution" irreversible.
The more than 60 participants acknowledged that though billions of dollars have been pumped into farming over the past couple of decades and some of the best brains have been deployed in such outfits as the 15 centres under the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research, all these efforts have failed to lift millions of African farmers and their families out of extreme poverty.
"It is time for Africa to produce its own food and attain self-sufficiency in food production. There is no reason why Africa cannot join the league of net-food exporting regions. Food insecurity should not be accepted as a normal state of affairs" said Kofi Annan.
Participants also explored continent-wide initiatives like the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (Caadp) that was launched by the African Union in 2003. Caadp had set targets for 2015, established a budget and had gone ahead to pinpoint where the money will come from and how much of it would be from African internal sources.
The African Union had targeted a 6 per cent annual growth in agriculture throughout the continent.
In his speech, Mr Annan downplayed that Agra is upstaging this initiative, saying; "Our work is in alignment with and supportive of the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme."
To achieve the African Union's targeted growth, he said, "We need a sustainable and uniquely African Green Revolution."
He said that the revolution must take into consideration the diversity of Africa's environments, help improve crop varieties for the staple food crops, protect and enrich genetic diversity among other measures.
Initially, the Agra initiative was seen as a sanitised push to have Africa grow and market genetically modified organism. But Agra now seems to have the support of some of the best brains in fields related to food, production, agricultural research, marketing and policy development.
Other important players are also rending support. The World Bank has now expressed a desire to have African governments intervene to reduce the plight of millions of poor smallholder farmers.
The jury though is out there on how far the Agra initiative can go in bringing about the desired positive change in Africa.
"If ever there was a time for an African Green Revolution, it is now. The time for talk is over Let us arise and work together to make the revolution a reality. Failure is not an option. Together, we will succeed," pledged Mr Annan.
Mr Annan said the initiative covers significant investments in developing improved seeds; improved soil health; irrigation and water management; agricultural extension; market access and policy development.
Mr Annan further acknowledged that Agra cannot go it alone and must remain a platform for engaging all stakeholders on the Green Revolution agenda for Africa. He called for partnerships between public and private sectors, civil society, farmer organisations, donors, scientists and entrepreneurs across the agricultural value chain.
The conference drew experts from all over the world - Americans, Canadians, Chinese, Japanese, Indians and Europeans - all offering diversified views on what they thought is the best path Africa ought to follow. There were also a sizeable number of African experts from different parts of the continent.
However, as the debates went on, it became clear that although some of the experts were ready to embrace radical change to address the plight of the small-scale farmer on the continent, a good number betrayed a silent desire to maintain the business-as-usual approach by making suggestions that would inevitably result in additional research and data collection on a continent described by many as one of the over-studied regions in the world.
Some of the African participants wanted water to be made available to millions of farmers wishing to engage in small and medium-sized irrigation projects, enabling them to purchase fertilisers.
African governments have failed completely to set up the right agenda, noted Robert Delve, a senior scientist at the Southern Africa-based Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical.
The general feeling was that since African states have generally failed the transparency and accountability test, they cannot be entrusted with driving the Green Revolution agenda.
John Mungai, director of policy at Kenya's Ministry of Agriculture, at this point reminded the delegates that the Green Revolution on the continent can only succeed if backed by African states.
Mr Annan noted that, for Africa to feed its people, it needs to strengthen its local and regional markets.
He said Africa's road system was a legacy of colonialism since all major roads lead to the coast.
The time has come, he said, for roads to be constructed in a way that connects countries, especially landlocked ones that struggle under the burden of high transport costs.
There was also appreciation that climate change will continue to weigh heavily on Africa's push to feed itself. Mr Annan noted that climate change could cause crop yields in some African countries to fall by 50 per cent by 2020, which will be a disastrous scenario for the poor who are already struggling to survive.
"Climate change comes as a major additional burden: changing rainfall patterns and extended drought cause more crops to fail and livestock to perish; higher temperatures allow vector-borne diseases to propagate and spread faster; more frequent and severe storms destroy homes and infrastructure; rising seas threaten low-lying settlements; while expanding deserts, drying rivers, lakes and other groundwater sources are squeezing the life out of once fertile regions," the former UN boss noted.
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