Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa explained

AGRA, formerly known as the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa is an African-led African-based organization that seeks to catalyse Agriculture Transformation in Africa. AGRA is focused on putting smallholder farmers at the centre of the continent's growing economy by transforming agriculture from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives. As the sector that employs the majority of Africa's people, nearly all of them small-scale farmers, AGRA recognizes that developing smallholder agriculture into a productive, efficient, and sustainable system is essential to ensuring food security, lifting millions out of poverty, and driving equitable growth across the continent.

AGRA is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, from where a team of African scientists, economists and business leaders supports its country operations and African governments. It was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.[1]

The institution also has offices in 11 African countries, under the management of country leads, who oversee the deployment of the organisation's national strategy.[2]

History

AGRA was founded in 2006 as an Africa-based and -led organization that works within the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP), Africa's policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition, economic growth and prosperity.[3] [4]

Former UN Secretary General, the Late Kofi Annan, was the organization's first chairman and he served until 2013 when Econet Wireless Founder Strive Masiyiwa took over.[5] Masiyiwa's term ended in 2019. He was succeeded by former Ethiopian Prime Minister H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn.[6]

AGRA has 211 employees from 24 nationalities of whom 42% are female and 58% male. About 61% of AGRA's workers are technical staff.[7] The organization is led by President Dr. Agnes Kalibata, who has held the office since 2014. She is deputized by Prof. Hamadi Boga, Former Principal Secretary, in the State Department of Crop Development and Agricultural Research in Kenya and Jonathan Said.[8] [9]

AGRA is among the key conveners of the annual Africa Food Systems Forum (AFS Forum), a gathering that brings together presidents, heads of state and government, ministers, scientists, farmers, private sector payers and members of the civil society to chart the way forward for African agriculture. The AGRF is now its 11th year.[10]

Countries of Operation

AGRA has prioritized 11 countries in three agro-ecologies:[11] [12]

Strategy

AGRA's strategy is to double the yields and incomes of 30 million smallholder households in 11 countries by the end of 2021.[13] The organization's impact is felt by:

According to the AGRA's Half-Year 2020 M&E Progress Report, 10.14 million farmers (76% of target) are benefitting from extension activities and 7.72 million farmers adopted improved and yield enhancing technologies. Farmers benefitting from AGRA's support now reported an increase in the number of months with sufficient food supply from 9.2 in 2016 to 11 months in 2019.

Strategic Interventions

AGRA's strategy is delivered through interventions in four priority areas; input systems, resilience building, innovative finance, and policy/country support.[15]

Input systems

Working with both public and private sector players to develop the systems required for the sustained availability, delivery and adoption of improved seeds and fertilizer with a focus on getting these inputs into the hands of farmers.[16]

Resilience building

Promoting interventions that enhance the resilience of the production system to climate change and climate variability. This is achieved by developing more efficient marketing systems, introducing post-harvest technologies to close yield gaps and ensure farmers can sustainably sell quality to consumer markets.[17]

Innovative finance

Enabling local agri-businesses to access markets, support local and national financial institutions. This includes providing affordable financing to smallholder farmers and local SMEs.[18] [19]

Policy and country support

Supporting governments in the 11 focus countries to strengthen the national capacities to deepen and sustain the gains made through policy decisions and encourage significant investments of public resources into the agriculture sector.

Strategic partners

AGRA is primarily guided by its partners across the continent, starting with the leadership of African states through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) coordination under the Malabo declaration.[20] [21] AGRA works closely with African governments, particularly in its eleven countries of operation, to whom it is accountable under national ownership of development leadership and governance. AGRA works under national development plans and National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs). It also works in partnership with other national actors in the private sector, farmers organizations, the academic and research community, and civil society.[22]

Projects

Critiques

Publications by the Oakland Institute have suggested that AGRA was planned without African voices, and imposes quick-fix technological solutions on complex and historically deep social issues, that it will impose a regime in which farmers lose power over their own seeds and are forced to buy them back from large corporations year after year. This system may also contribute to the marginalization of women.[25] [26] The conference compiled a set of papers containing various arguments:There's also suggestions that hunger in Africa results more from poverty than from actual food shortages; people will not be able to buy any additional food that gets produced without larger systemic changes. [27]

In 2021, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa released an open letter with many signatories stating that AGRA had "failed in its mission to increase productivity and incomes and reduce food insecurity".[28]

Publications

Africa Agriculture Status Report – An annual publication highlighting the major trends in African agriculture, the drivers of those trends, and the emerging challenges that Africa's food systems face.[29]

Food Security Monitor – A monthly publication providing the food security outlook in AGRA's focus countries of around Africa.[30]

AGRA Annual Reports.[31]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. 2021-06-15. The Rockefeller Foundation. en-US.
  2. Web site: Africa seeks the cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean in the areas of export development, soil recovery and reforestation. 2021-06-15. IICA.INT. en.
  3. Web site: New Agriculturist: News brief - Kofi Annan leads Africa's new 'Green Revolution'. 2021-05-06. www.new-ag.info.
  4. Web site: The farmers' voice in agricultural development. 2021-05-06. Alliance magazine.
  5. Web site: Strive Masiyiwa - Chair Emeritus. 2021-05-06. Nutrition International. en-CA.
  6. Web site: 2019-11-26. Ex-Ethiopian PM on why Rwanda was named new home for continental agric body. 2021-05-06. The New Times Rwanda. en.
  7. Web site: MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT – AGRA Annual Report 2019. 2021-05-06. en-US. 2021-05-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20210506093944/https://agra.org/ar-2019/message-from-our-president/. dead.
  8. Web site: Leadership. 2021-05-06. United Nations. en.
  9. Web site: 2020-01-30. IBRAF is going to develop a leadership program in partnership with the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa - IBRAF Brazil Africa Institute Instituto Brasil África. 2021-05-06. en-GB.
  10. Web site: AGRF Virtual Summit 2020. live. 2021-05-11. AGRF. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20210119113650/https://www.agrf.org/agrf_wp/agrf2020/ . 2021-01-19 .
  11. Web site: GAIN and AGRA to partner for food and nutrition security. 2021-05-28. Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). en.
  12. Web site: Focus Countries. 2021-05-28. AGRA. en-US.
  13. Web site: Kim. Sung Kyu. 2020-10-13. Does the African Green Revolution include smallholder farmers?. 2021-06-09. STEPS Centre. en-GB.
  14. Web site: AGRA half-year 2020 M&E Progress Report. live. 2021-06-09. United States Agency for International Development. https://web.archive.org/web/20210609114217/https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00X3WJ.pdf . 2021-06-09 .
  15. Web site: Microsoft collaborates with AGRA to digitize agriculture in 11 African countries. 2021-06-21. Africa Business Communities. en.
  16. Web site: New partnership inked with AGRA to boost improved technology uptake in Africa's agriculture – ICRISAT. 2021-06-21. www.icrisat.org.
  17. Web site: Mboga. Jael. AGRA, Microsoft in new deal to solve agriculture problems using technology - FarmKenya Initiative. 2021-06-21. Farm Kenya Initiative. en.
  18. Web site: Akinyi. Maureen. AGRA financing model sees 230,000 farmers access loans - FarmKenya Initiative. 2021-06-21. Farm Kenya Initiative. en.
  19. Web site: 2011-07-24. NIRSAL: CBN, AGRA new project to create affordable loans for small holder farmers. 2021-06-21. Vanguard News. en-US.
  20. Web site: African Green Revolution – Theme 3. 2021-06-24. Future agricultures. en-GB.
  21. Web site: Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth AUDA-NEPAD. 2021-06-24. www.nepad.org.
  22. Web site: Green Revolution in Africa Has Sown Agricultural Success, Report Finds. live. Philanthropy News Digest. https://web.archive.org/web/20160908233654/http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/green-revolution-in-africa-has-sown-agricultural-success-report-finds . 2016-09-08 .
  23. News: New cassava varieties that withstand deadly viral diseases released in Tanzania. 5 February 2012. IITA. 24 January 2012.
  24. News: Hultman. Tami. Africa: Aid Can Spur 'Historic Progress' - Bill Gates. 5 February 2012. AllAfrica. 24 January 2012.
  25. Web site: Austin-Evelyn. Katherine. The 'keepers of seed': The impact of the 'Green Revolution' in Africa on female farmers. Consultancy Africa Intelligence. 2 February 2012. 16 June 2011. 3 December 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131203060532/http://www.consultancyafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=780:the-keepers-of-seed-the-impact-of-the-green-revolution-in-africa-on-female-farmers&catid=59:gender-issues-discussion-papers&Itemid=267. dead.
  26. Book: Voices From Africa. 2011. Oakland Institute. Oakland. Melissa Moore. Anuradha Mittal. 2 February 2012.
  27. Web site: Holt-Giménez. Eric. Ten Reasons Why AGRA Will not Solve Poverty and Hunger in Africa. live. 21 February 2021. foodfirst.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20190619110351/https://foodfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/PB12-Ten-Reasons-Why-AGRA-Will-not-Solve-Poverty-and-Hunger-in-Africa.pdf . 2019-06-19 .
  28. News: Sigei . Julius . AGRA's Green Revolution Has Failed, Critics Say . 2 February 2022 . The Elephant . 22 January 2022.
  29. Web site: Africa Agriculture Status Report 2020 Launched. live. 2021-07-09. massp.ifpri.info. https://web.archive.org/web/20210709191041/https://massp.ifpri.info/2020/09/11/africa-agriculture-status-report-2020/ . 2021-07-09 .
  30. Web site: Food Security Monitor. 2021-07-09. AGRA. en-US.
  31. Web site: Annual Reports. 2021-07-09. AGRA. en-US.