Green Revolution Initiatives In Africa: Challenges And Opportunities

1. Read the linked article in the Economist: “How does your garden grow?”

Write a critical commentary on the article that responds to the arguments advanced by the author in this article. Draw on our course materials to support your analysis.

2. Much of the literature that we covered in this course asserts that we cannot solve problems of development unless we address issues of land inequality. Explain how financialization can further exacerbate inequality with respect to food, land and development?

Challenges Faced by the African Continent

Green revolution refers to the benevolent initiatives to increase agricultural production and prevent hunger and starvation. In this context, it is important to know that the African continent did not have any green revolution yet. As a result of that the production in agriculture was not as enhanced as it was expected. Based on this understanding, it can be argued that the government must take initiatives in order to increase the rate of agricultural production. As a matter of fact, the private investment in terms of financial and technological aid would also create a better framework for the development of African agricultural production.

There are number of flaws within the African continent in terms of political chaos and economic inadequacy that perturbed the situation more rapidly. In the article of Butajira and Gulu it was clearly articulated that the number of agricultural workers in the African continent has decreased in a rapid pace since 2002. As per the article the percentage of worker has fallen from 66% to 57% (agrf.org.). It seemed to be a great challenge for the African region to cope with the market demand. On the contrary, the agricultural production has increased in 2000 in compare to 1970. However, the productivity of the existing land was not increased that much. Expansion in the number of cultivable land was the main reason behind the boost in agricultural productivity. In addition to this, the article also advocated that lack of government concern over the green revolution measures also instigated the rapid decline in the productivity. There were no alternative measures that had been taken in order to resolve the threat to food security for the African people (Roby). In this context, the article also reflected a comparison between the pre-independence situation in Africa and the recent scenario (Butajira and Gulu). Lack of government entrepreneurship and mechanism in terms of planning and using modern agricultural tools are the primary factors that facilitated the loss of agricultural production in a rapid pace.

In response to this, it can be argued that the government must take adequate steps to combat with hunger and poverty in Africa. According to Roby the number of hungry and unhealthy percentage of African has escalated from 20.8% to 22.7% within the year between 2015 and 2016. Moreover, rockefellerfoundation.org. stated that the number of malnutrition is also increased in such a pace and heightened from 200 billion to 224 billion where the total population is amounted 1.2 billion. As a result of that with the growing population it is important to address the green revolution initiatives that can be formulated by the governments of different African countries. Based on this situation, the research of Brooks (18) asserted that a green revolution plan can deal with the endangered issue and advised the government to follow the green revolution model of the United States. It means the green revolution step must incorporate the tools like power of science, technology and entrepreneurship to resolve the hunger crisis in Africa. In course of the discussion, it is pertinent to argued that the article of gatesfoundation.org. did not mention anything about the private investment for coping with the situation. According to Doughton it can be stated that the government initiatives are not enough to deal with the agricultural productivity issue in Africa. It requires more interference of the private organisations in order to make a better collaboration between the government and private entrepreneurship in order to resolve the problem.

Government Intervention and Private Investment

Based on this understanding, it can be asserted that a number of private organisations are shared their willingness to invest and assist Africa in order to develop the agricultural framework. In course of this, the Rockefeller Foundation with a joint venture with the Gates Foundation tried to develop the green revolution initiatives in different parts of Africa (gatesfoundation.org.). The program named Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) was initiated in the year 2006 with the purpose to eradicate hunger and bring effective development in the process of agricultural productivity (Kansanga 720). The objective of Rockefeller Foundation is to secure foods for 30 million farming households in 11 countries across the African continent. In this regard, there are some interesting factors of the AGRA program with empowering 15 million African smallholders with skill development. Moreover, 13 million hectares was restored for agricultural production. In the financial aspect as well the Rockefeller Foundation contributed a lot. As per the report, the organisation had invested more than $430 million for the benefits of the African agriculture (rockefellerfoundation.org.). On the other hand, the Gates Foundation also contributed simultaneously on the course of enhancing the agricultural productivity in African countries. The primary purpose of Gates Foundation was to instigate a green revolution that was identified as a major step towards developing African agriculture (gatesfoundation.org.).

Moreover, the governments are also taking some steps to make it a success. The alliance with the private organisations like Rockefeller and Gates Foundation made it more effective and efficient to launch the green revolution program. In this context, it can be stated that poverty in countries like Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso has already reduced due to the government intervention. There were more efforts taken out both by the public and private sectors in order to despatch a better and healthy impact on the green revolution efforts. Besides this, the African Union introduced a number of measures like the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) established in 2003 (theconversation.com.). As a result of that the CAADP program set some regulations for the respective African countries. As far as the report, each African country had to allocate 10% of the national budget to agriculture and the target annual growth in the productivity was set up to 6% (Nally and Taylor 55). The outcome was such initiative was not so bad and optimistic that most of the countries in Africa has increased the agricultural growth by 5.6 to 6.7% annually. However, there were some inequality in the percentage of growth for those countries who adapted the program later. Despite all those unequal growths it can be surely stated that not in all aspect the African Countries or AGRA failed to implement a better framework for the growth in the productivity of the African agriculture.

Despite of achieving to enhance the production rate in the African continent, there are still lots of tasks to do for the government. Moreover, the Gates foundation was under scrutiny because of their not-so-good activities in the African region. Recently, the article of Doughton advocated that the Gates Foundation used wrong techniques of harvests and those techniques were completely followed the Western style of cultivation. However, the use of fertilizers and chemicals was improper for growing the dry crops in African continent. Based on this it arises the question of the vitality of the private organisations to get associated with the agricultural productivity development program.

From that point of view, it can be stated that the entire process of leading towards a green revolution requires a strong African organisation that can monitor the entire process. There are inadequate measures by the government and misunderstanding of the private organisations perturbs the situation. However, it can be stated that the economically the African countries are not so strong financially. As a result of that they need financial support to launch a green revolution plan. It is also unjustified to disqualify the private organisations to help the African countries because of using wrong techniques. Those problems can be eradicated. Therefore, it can be concluded that both the public and private intervention is important to initiate the green revolution in Africa. As a matter of fact, the governments take great care to install better environment.

References

agrf.org. "About AGRF". AGRF 2018, 2018, https://agrf.org/african-green-revolution-forum/. Accessed 27 Nov 2018.

Brooks, Sally. "Enabling adaptation? Lessons from the new ‘Green Revolution’in Malawi and Kenya." Climatic change122.1-2 (2014): 15-26.

Butajira, and Gulu. "Africa Needs A Green Revolution". The Economist, 2018, https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/11/03/africa-needs-a-green-revolution.  Accessed 27 Nov 2018.  

Doughton, Sandi. "Critics Of Gates’ Ag Programs Bring The Battle To Seattle". The Seattle Times, 2014, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/critics-of-gatesrsquo-ag-programs-bring-the-battle-to-seattle/. Accessed 27 Nov 2018.

gatesfoundation.org. "Bill & Melinda Gates, Rockefeller Foundations Form Alliance To Help Spur “Green Revolution” In Africa". Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2018, https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2006/09/Foundations-Form-Alliance-to-Help-Spur-Green-Revolution-in-Africa. Accessed 27 Nov 2018.

Kansanga, Moses Mosonsieyiri. "Who you know and when you plough? Social capital and agricultural mechanization under the new green revolution in Ghana." International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 15.6 (2017): 708-723.

Nally, David, and Stephen Taylor. "The politics of self-help: The Rockefeller Foundation, philanthropy and the ‘long’Green Revolution." Political Geography 49 (2015): 51-63.

Roby, Christin. "Renewed Pressure On African Governments To Lead Agricultural Transformation". Devex, 2018, https://www.devex.com/news/renewed-pressure-on-african-governments-to-lead-agricultural-transformation-93366. Accessed 27 Nov 2018.

rockefellerfoundation.org. "Alliance For A Green Revolution In Africa - The Rockefeller Foundation". The Rockefeller Foundation, 2018, https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/our-work/initiatives/alliance-for-a-green-revolution-in-africa/. Accessed 27 Nov 2018.

theconversation.com. "Moving Beyond The Green Revolution In Africa's New Era Of Hunger". The Conversation, 2017, https://theconversation.com/moving-beyond-the-green-revolution-in-africas-new-era-of-hunger-87310. Accessed 27 Nov 2018.