Would a green revolution work in sub-Saharan Africa?

The Green Revolution in the 1960s increased food production in many parts of the world. However, the number of malnourished people in sub-Saharan Africa has increased by 20 percent since 1990. Would a green revolution succeed here?

The term 'Green Revolution' describes the contribution of agricultural research outputs, such as high-yielding varieties, fertilisers, irrigation and agrochemicals, to increasing the production per unit area of food crops. It achieved food security across large areas of Asia and Latin America. Many experts argue that sub-Saharan Africa now needs its own green revolution to achieve food security, especially as the region cannot rely on converting new land (such as forests, wetlands and marginal lands) to agriculture.

However, some evidence disputes that the first green revolution was entirely positive:

• The spread of hybrids (the offspring of two plants of different varieties) and use of agrochemicals (such as pesticides) caused a loss of biodiversity, less varied diets and exposure to toxic pesticides, affecting ecosystems and human health.
• The benefits of new technologies were unevenly distributed. Labourers found that their wage rates increased only a little while land prices increased substantially, reducing labourers' share of income. The gap also widened between those who owned or rented land and the landless, particularly women, as rural employment opportunities diminished.

Reviewing the potential of green revolution technologies in sub-Saharan Africa, the InterAcademy Council concluded in 2004 that a revolution similar to Asia's was unlikely to occur because of the region's diversity, reliance on rainfed smallholder systems, its immense size and poor infrastructure.

Rather than attempting to introduce changes across the whole region, sub-Saharan Africa requires a series of smaller 'rainbow evolutions'. These are smaller, localised technological developments from agricultural research institutes that respond to different farming systems in the region.

To facilitate agricultural change in sub-Saharan Africa, research and extension services must focus on:

• Expanding partnerships with stakeholders (such as producers, suppliers, marketers, policymakers and farmers) which can validate the demand for research and support the uptake of technologies.
• Addressing market access issues (such as food quality and safety) as well as productivity.
• Offering stakeholders technological choices to improve their livelihoods, rather than one single technology.
• The environment is severely degraded: policies must concentrate on increasing yields using sustainable technology and sound natural resource management practices from the start.
• Empowering women is especially important because they provide most of the labour and increasingly head rural households.
• Governments in the region must release the ten percent of budgets pledged for agriculture at Maputo, Mozambique, in 2003.

Monty P. Jones
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, PMB CT 173 Cantonments, Accra, Ghana
T +233 21 772823 or 779421
F +233 21 773676
MJones@fara-africa.org
www.fara-africa.org

Frances Kimmins
Natural Resources International Ltd, Park House, Bradbourne Lane, Aylesford, Kent, ME20 6SN, UK
T +44 (0)1732 87 86 77
f.kimmins@nrint.co.uk
www.nrinternational.co.uk

See also

Realising the Potential and Promise of African Agriculture, InterAcademy Council: Amsterdam, 2004
www.interacademycouncil.net/report.asp?id=6959

World Food Situation: An Overview, prepared for the CGIAR Annual General Meeting Dec 6th 2005, International Food Policy Research Institute: Washington, DC, by Joachim von Braun, 2005
www.ifpri.org/pubs/agm05/jvbagm2005.asp

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