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Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

AGRA's Programs

AGRA’s programs and partnerships work for comprehensive changes across the agricultural system to benefit smallholder farmers, the majority women. Integrated programs in seeds, soils, market access, policy and partnerships, and innovative finance are transforming subsistence farming into sustainable, viable commercial activity.

AGRA’s programs also work to strengthen agricultural education and extension, train youth, develop rural infrastructure, improve efficient water management and enable smallholder farmers to adapt to and mitigate climate change. All of our programs pay special attention to the women farmers who produce the majority of Africa’s food. AGRA programs seek to empower women with full and equal access to finance, land security, extension services and new agricultural tools and technologies.

From Africa’s high-potential breadbasket areas, to broader and more challenging environments, AGRA’s integrated programs are making a difference. One example is found in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, where 700,000 smallholder farmers produced a record maize harvest in 2009, helping to feed drought-stricken regions of the country.

Integrated Programs to Trigger Comprehensive Change

Find out more about each of AGRA’s programs, and how they work together to trigger big changes for smallholder farmers:

  • The Seeds Program supports the breeding of improved seed and works to ensure that this good seed gets to farmers. Currently, less than one-quarter of African farmers use high yielding, locally adapted seed. Poor seeds and depleted soils have kept farmers’ yields at one-quarter the global average.

  • The Soil Health Program improves farm productivity through increasing farmers’ access to locally appropriate soil nutrients and promoting integrated soil and water management. The Seeds and Soil Health Programs work together to raise farmers’ yields. Both are key to environmental sustainability and helping farmers adapt to and mitigate climate change.

  • Once improved seeds and soils engender higher yields, farmers need access to markets for their surplus. AGRA’s Market Access Program pursues multiple routes to expanding market access for smallholders.

  • For all of these efforts to have a widespread impact, agricultural policies must provide smallholder farmers with comprehensive support on national, regional and global levels. At the same time, partnerships are needed to marshal the resources and expertise that will catalyze change. AGRA’s Policy and Partnerships Program tackles these challenges.

  • All of this takes resources, and one overlooked source is Africa’s own commercial banks. AGRA’s cross-cutting Initiative on Innovative Finance works with Africa’s financial institutions and other partners to increase access to low-interest loans for smallholder farmers and agricultural businesses.

Find out more about AGRA’s programs, and how each contributes to a revolution in African agriculture that promises to feed millions, raise rural incomes, grow national economies, and contribute to global food security.

AGRA’s Partnerships

AGRA’s programs are based on partnerships, whether with African government ministries, organizations of women farmers, or associations of crop breeders.

In November 2009, AGRA launched a partnership with the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), in support of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). The AGRA-NEPAD partnership recognizes that an African Green Revolution is essential to realizing CAADP’s goal of at least six percent annual agricultural growth in African countries. AGRA and NEPAD are working together through National CAADP Roundtable Processes to formulate national plans for agricultural development that benefits smallholder farmers.

Through the National Roundtables and a host of diverse efforts, AGRA partnerships include those with: African government leaders and policy-makers; national agricultural research and extension systems; international and regional agricultural research centres; non-governmental organizations; community-based organizations; farmer organizations; private sector companies; international partners including bilateral aid organizations and foundations; and financial institutions including local banks, the World Bank, IFAD and the African Development Bank. To learn more about AGRA’s partners, see our Partnerships page.