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Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

Frequently Asked Questions




What is AGRA?
We are a partnership-based organization that works across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. African-led and Africa-based, AGRA develops programs aimed at implementing practical solutions to significantly boost smallholder farm productivity and incomes while safeguarding the environment and promoting equity.

Our programs and partnerships are comprehensive in that they address challenges all along the agricultural value chain: covering seeds, soil health, water, markets, and agricultural education. AGRA advocates for policies that support this work: from access to seeds to securing land tenure, from fair trade to affordable finance.

AGRA’s partners include organizations of farmers, research scientists, the private sector, national leaders and institutions, civil society, and multilateral organizations. We seek to foster pro-poor agricultural development for small-scale farmers, the majority women.



What is AGRA’s distinctive vision of an African Green Revolution?
We believe that an African Green Revolution will succeed when it:

  • Develops and implements home-grown solutions;
  • Is led by African farmers, governments, scientists and civil society;
  • Focuses on smallholder farmers, the majority of whom are women;
  • Protects the environment and crop biodiversity;
  • Expands the choices available to smallholder farmers through a joint focus on technologies that meet their needs and supportive, pro-poor polices;
  • Works with partners to achieve its goals, and
  • Is sustainable economically, socially and environmentally.

AGRA puts the African smallholder farmer at the heart of the Green Revolution, thereby ensuring that policies and programs are responsive to their needs and ambitions. AGRA aims to work with farmers to double or triple their productivity and thereby dramatically reduce poverty and spur rural economic development.  Our solutions-oriented approach empowers farmers and implicitly supports good governance.

AGRA’s approach depends on partnerships. Instead of duplicating current efforts by seeking to build its own capacity, AGRA backs the endeavours of capable partners to address agriculture as a comprehensive system, thereby triggering a process of analysis and action that will deliver sustained gains.



What is the African context for AGRA’s approach?
In 2003, at the African Union Summit, African heads of state and government signed the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, committing their governments to allocating at least 10 percent of national budget resources to agricultural sectors. The heads of state endorsed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). Developed by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), CAADP presents a powerful vision for change and commits signatories to seeking six percent annual growth in food production by 2015.

In 2004, at the African Union Summit, the UN Secretary-General Mr. Kofi A. Annan called for a uniquely African Green Revolution. Then, in 2006, the African Union’s further strengthened its support of farmers at the African Fertilizer Summit, where African heads of state and government committed to take concrete steps to ensure that farmers will have access to fertilizer and seeds, credit and irrigation facilities, better transport means, and extension and market information services.
In support of these measures, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) was established in 2006 to achieve a smallholder-based African Green Revolution that will enable Africa to be food self-sufficient and food secure. We work closely with the African Union and the NEPAD Secretariat, and others who support CAADP’s goals.



How will an African Green Revolution differ from the 20th Century Green Revolutions in Asia and Latin America?
Conditions in Africa today are significantly different from those that prevailed in Asia and Latin America, making simple transfers of those experiences impossible.

These differences start with the exceptional complexity of African farming systems, based on the continent’s wide range of agro-ecologies, climates and cultures. Moreover, African soils are poorer and more degraded than were Asia’s, requiring more complex systems of natural resources management to restore and sustain them.

While the Asian and Latin American Green Revolutions relied on widespread adoption of standard technology packages of irrigation, fertilizer, and improved rice, wheat or corn spread over millions of hectares, an African Green Revolution needs to conserve and promote the diversity of African crops, cropping systems and livestock. Africa’s Green Revolution will be based primarily on rain-fed agriculture, and programmatically geared toward the empowerment of smallholder farmers.  

Furthermore, more so than in Asia, women predominate in African agriculture.  Special attention is needed to ensure women’s equal access to land, appropriate technologies, and finance.  

At the macro level, infrastructure and institutions that serve agriculture in Africa are much weaker than those that prevailed in pre-Green Revolution Asia, as is government policy support.  Many African agricultural institutions were downsized, if not eliminated, under Structural Adjustment programs and have not yet recovered.  Therefore, location-specific innovations must be complemented by the development of supportive policies and the rebuilding of African capacity.



What are your main program areas?
We focus on a set of programs that constitute a comprehensive and integrated approach to the transformation of African agriculture for smallholder farmers:
 

  • Policy Program engages national governments and donors to establish an enabling environment for achieving a Green /revolution in Africa.
  • The Seeds Programme (Programme on African Seed Systems- PASS) addresses capacity development, agro-ecology based crop breeding, the development of a vibrant, competitive African seed sector, and the widespread commercialization of appropriate and well adapted improved crop varieties through village-level agro-dealers.
  • The Soil Health Program focuses on a rapid dissemination of locally adapted and environmentally sound integrated soil fertility management technologies.
  • The Markets Access Program promotes efficient and profitable output markets to assure higher returns to technology investments by farmers. This will be achieved by lowering transaction costs, reducing risks, improving market information systems, and enhancing value addition through processing.
  • New efforts on Extension, Water, and Youth Program are being developed.

AGRA currently supports nearly 100 programs and partnerships in 13 African countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. We are exploring program possibilities in Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Sudan, and Madagascar.

Who leads AGRA and how is AGRA governed?
AGRA is an African-based and African-led organization, from its President and Vice President, Drs. Namanga Ngongi and Akin A. Adesina, to its Management Team, comprising directors of AGRA’s major programs. Over 90 percent of AGRA’s program staff is African. The Management Team, led by AGRA’s President, makes all vital decisions on AGRA priorities and programs.

AGRA is further advised by a Board of Directors comprised of African leaders, scientists and eminent persons drawn from public life and business, as well as international experts in agriculture and economic development. In June 2007, AGRA selected its first Board Chairman, Mr Kofi A. Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations.



Who founded AGRA and who funds AGRA?
AGRA was established in September 2006 with initial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Rockefeller Foundation (RF). The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) joined as a funding partner in 2008.

We continue to mobilize additional resources for AGRA and for the attainment of an African Green Revolution.  We are confident of securing further funding and companion initiatives both within Africa and globally, among public and private sector organizations and foundations, as well as from major multilateral and bilateral organisations.



Why do you focus on smallholder farmers? How do you work for equity?
Africa will only achieve significant increases in food production by improving agriculture on small-scale farms that provide 70 to 80 percent of agricultural production, not by supplanting them with industrial farming. Opening opportunities and achieving equity for Africa’s poorest farmers is AGRA’s focus.

Unlike the Green Revolution in Latin America, which mostly benefited large-scale farmers because they had access to irrigation and were therefore in a position to use the improved varieties, AGRA is developing programs specifically geared to overcome the challenges facing smallholder farmers.

Achieving equity requires paying special attention to women farmers, who often have unequal access to land, farm inputs, financing and education. They shoulder a majority of farm labour with a minority of resources, while raising children and running households. AGRA’s programs work to empower Africa’s women farmers.

Achieving equity means expanding the opportunities open to smallholder farmers, whether that is through access to improved seeds, to organic farming techniques, to entering cash-crop production, or to a host of additional options designed to be environmentally and economically sustainable.



What is your view of land tenure?
Smallholder farmers should not only be able to aspire to prosperity, but to achieve it. Critical to this effort is ensuring that farmers have secure access to land. Land tenure is both a right and a stimulus for smallholder farmers to invest in technologies, as it provides added assurance that farmers will benefit from their labour.

AGRA’s Policy Program includes supporting policies that secure farmers’—especially women farmers’—rights to land.  AGRA will work with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on advocacy issues to promote equitable access to land. The work of many CSOs to champion the rights of land tenure should be supported.



How do farmers participate in AGRA?
AGRA’s grantees work closely with farmers every day in the field, developing and testing improved crop varieties, collecting and conserving crop varieties, and learning from indigenous knowledge.  AGRA’s partners and grantees include farmers’ organizations, women’s organizations and NGOs.

Our work with farmers occurs in the course of participatory crop breeding (for more on  this, see question XX), through the practice of integrated soil fertility management, and through daily contact with agro-dealers who supply farmers in remote areas with affordable farm inputs such as improved seeds and appropriate fertilizers.



How do you work with the public sector?
Both the public and private sectors play vital roles in Africa’s Green Revolution. AGRA builds partnerships among both sectors that serve the interests of the poor and promote equity.

But the private sector and markets alone cannot solve Africa’s food crisis. The public sector and civil society are vital to securing Africa’s food security and self-sufficiency.

The public sector role includes support for the development of agricultural infrastructure such as roads, irrigation, and electrical power. And the public sector is also responsible for strengthening institutions that serve smallholder farmers, including agricultural extension, public education delivering policies that support smallholder farmers, from ensuring land tenure to delivering smart subsidies.

AGRA has been in the forefront of advocacy for African governments to deliver comprehensive support to smallholder farmers, and to develop evidence-based, pro-poor policies. AGRA energetically partners with the public sector—working with heads of state and government on all levels—in these efforts.



What is the role of agricultural subsidies in an African Green Revolution?
As part of African governments’ comprehensive support for smallholder farmers, AGRA advocates for ‘smart subsidies’ – making available improved seeds and fertilizers that are subsidized by governments and delivered through the private sector to poor farmers. Without such support, many smallholder farmers are simply unable to grow enough food to feed themselves and their families, and instead are left hungry, sick and dependent on food aid or food imports.

The urgent need for smart subsidies is driven in part by the global energy crisis, which has seen the price of fertilizers and other crucial farm inputs skyrocket. And while Western governments have rushed to aid their industrial-scale farmers, African governments are only beginning to support smallholder farmers who work with virtually no help of any kind.

While smart subsidies alone are not a long-term solution, they are an important aspect of the support needed to increase food production and income generation in rural communities. AGRA is working with the governments of Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania to promote such policies and programs.



How do you work with the private sector?
Our private sector work focuses on the development of small- and medium-sized African companies that benefit smallholder farmers and improve the food value chain:

  • We support for 12 new African seed companies and agro-dealer networks in seven African countries to provide remote farmers with affordable, appropriate farm inputs.
  • We support farmer-run start-up companies that add value to crops through food processing.
  • We are working with Equity Bank in Kenya and the National Microfinance Bank in Tanzania to provide millions of small-scale farmers access to affordable financing.


In general, private sector companies may participate in developing infrastructure, transport, added-value enterprises, agricultural technologies, seed production and distribution systems, local fertilizer manufacturing capacity, finance and markets. AGRA supports responsible, transparent private sector efforts to address and resolve bottlenecks across the food value chain.



Why is does AGRA consider agricultural sector financing such an important issue?
Lack of access to credit for Africa’s smallholder farmers, input suppliers, farmer cooperatives, or agro-processors is a major impediment to increasing productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. AGRA is working with financial institutions to make low-interest loans available to key agro-dealers, fertilizer wholesalers, and seed companies—and to make financing available for warehouse receipt systems, farmer groups, and agro-processing facilities.

To address this lack of access to credit, AGRA, in partnership with Equity Bank, IFAD and the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, created a loan facility of US $50 million that was backed with a US $5 million cash guarantee fund. As a result, affordable credit was made available to 2.5 million farmers and 15,000 agricultural value chain operators such as rural input shops, fertilizer and seed wholesalers and importers, grain traders and food processors.

A similar loan facility was established with the National Microfinance Bank in Tanzania. AGRA is working with another Africa-based financial institution to announce a US$200 million agricultural loan facility that will benefit smallholder farmers in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana. AGRA also is in discussions with Rabobank and the Rabobank Foundation for similar facilities. Several other banks have requested AGRA consider innovative financing programs with their institutions.

While AGRA recognizes this innovative financing will not replace the need for, and importance of, official donor assistance to African agriculture, it is an additional pool of money that will accelerate food production and raise the incomes of thousands of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.



Do you work with Transnational Corporations?
The focus of AGRA’s private sector work is to promote small- and medium- sized African businesses that benefit the interests of African farmers.

However, AGRA will work with transnational companies if there is a clear benefit to smallholder farmers—our goal is to improve their lives, and toward this end we build partnerships large and small. Our work with transnational corporations will be fully transparent.



Does AGRA support breeding of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)?
AGRA uses conventional breeding to develop crop varieties. AGRA does not fund the development of GMOs. At the same time, AGRA recognizes the important role that science plays in addressing the complex challenges facing African farmers. We support science-based solutions and building the capacity of national research institutions and their scientists to develop the technologies needed to feed their people. We also support the development of responsible regulatory systems.

African governments are responsible for decisions on GMOs. It is their role to assess the risks of such research and the food safety implications of these decisions. In all of its work, AGRA operates within established regulatory frameworks.



How do you work with Civil Society Organizations?
Many AGRA grantees work directly with CSOs. AGRA would like to further strengthen its ties with civil society organizations, and we plan to develop more formal mechanisms for regular consultation. We welcome suggestions on ways to engage with CSOs.



How do AGRA programmes protect the environment?
By focusing on sustainable development practices, AGRA reduces environmental degradation and conserves biodiversity. Rebuilding soil health and enabling Africa’s smallholder farmers to grow more on less land should reduce the pressure to clear and cultivate forests and savannahs, thus helping to conserve the environment and biodiversity.

AGRA’s sustainable agricultural practices include improving soil health through integrated soil fertility management, using combinations of fertilizers, organic inputs and techniques that are appropriate for local conditions and resources, including zero-tillage. Through advocating the use of agro-ecologically sound approaches to soil and crop management, such as fertilizer micro-dosing in arid areas, AGRA will guard against potential overuse of fertilizer that could harm the environment. AGRA’s current seed systems and soil health programs include water management components.

AGRA and its partners will work together to determine the kinds of environmental safeguards countries will need to put in place as agricultural production increases.



How does AGRA encourage crop biodiversity?
Africa’s Green Revolution cannot emphasize monocultures and single crops. Africa’s varied ecology and great crop diversity across regions and cultures requires a farmer-participatory approach to breeding many different locally adapted crop varieties.  New varieties are needed because many of the seeds farmers use today are inherently low-yielding and vulnerable to a host of crop diseases and pests.

All of AGRA’s crop variety development is undertaken with the participation of smallholder farmers. The participatory process first focuses on understanding what is in farmers’ fields, conserving crop biodiversity and utilizing it to develop improved varieties suited to the environment and beneficial to smallholder farmers.  

AGRA’s Program on African Seed Systems, or PASS, has developed a portfolio of investments to help farmers collect and save genetic resources, particularly through our plans to support public institutions in both ex situ and in situ conservation. PASS, which may be the only program that exclusively funds African plant breeders, also plans to recruit a biodiversity conservationist in 2009.

In addition to supporting the development of high-yielding hybrids, AGRA supports the development of open-pollinated varieties to further diversify options for farmers.  AGRA supports the rights of farmers to conserve and utilize their own seeds.



Do you support the patenting of new plant varieties?
Intellectual property rights (IPR) are defined by national laws and the interpretation of IPR and treaties is the job of public servants and policymakers. AGRA works within the context of national laws to ensure that African farmers, too, have access to modern agricultural technology. AGRA funds plant breeders working in national research institutes to use conventional methods to develop improved, adapted crop varieties.

 



What is your approach to trade issues that affect African farmers?
AGRA believes that it is critical for global trade regimes to offer fairer and expanded access to markets for African farmers. We support the prioritization of the interests of African smallholder farmers in the Doha rounds and the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade from African farmers.

Expanding intra-regional trade within Africa is also important for expanding market and economic opportunities for African farmers. Intra-regional trade is hindered by high tariffs and other barriers within Africa itself.

Through its Policy and Market Access Programs, AGRA will work with regional economic communities in Africa to remove barriers to intra-regional trade.



How will AGRA measure its progress?
As the African Green Revolution unfolds it will be important to monitor its progress and provide feedback. AGRA is developing a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system to ensure that our programs are able to achieve their objectives.

We are designing our M&E system:

  • As a management tool, to provide a basis for program adjustment, as the organization learns from its achievements and constraints;
  • Assess the impact of AGRA’s activities in terms of the changes required to bring about a Green Revolution;
  • Evaluate the quality of AGRA’s partnerships and alliances; and
  • Provide a sound basis for making appropriate reports to various stakeholders.

The system will use reliable, credible and properly disaggregated data and statistics. Follow-up field visits will be used to ascertain the quality of data. There will be need for maximum coordination with other agencies involved with agricultural development work to come up with collectively agreed indicators and jointly address the issue of attribution. The M&E of AGRA should, as far as possible, be aligned with that of concerned countries, and be used for learning. Data should be collected with the end result in mind of providing policy makers the evidence they require for decision-making.

 



How can citizens support your work?
All citizens can contribute to AGRA’s work through:

  • getting the word out about AGRA and an African Green Revolution;
  • sharing your ideas and insights with us via this website;
  • donating to AGRA, our grantees and our partners

Citizens of African countries can review our grants to determine if there are grantees in your area for whom you may be able to donate volunteer time, materials, or money.