NAIROBI, Kenya, August 27 – Organic farming advocates in Africa are now rallying against industrialised agriculture introduced by foreign parties following its potential damage to the continent’s food system.
Four organisations under the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), namely the Biosafety Association of Kenya (BIBA), the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (AFASA), the Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute (SAFCEI), and the Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB), have now opposed the Gates Foundation’s injection of the green revolution into African agriculture.
The four said in a statement that they will issue a letter to the Gates Foundation demanding restitution for the damage it has caused following its aggressive push for industrialised agriculture.
“Despite a proven track record of failures (highlighted in AGRA’s own donor-commissioned report), AGRA and its lead funders, namely the Gates Foundation and USAID, continue to push industrial agriculture using their outsized resources and power,” the statement read.
“African faith leaders will soon issue an open letter to the Gates Foundation demanding reparations for causing extensive damage to Africa’s food systems with its aggressive push for industrialized agriculture, much of it under the banner of AGRA (formerly the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa),” it added.
According to Gabriel Manyangadze from SAFCEI, the Green Revolution has not only failed to accelerate food security in Africa but has also inflicted deep ecological and social fractures.
New research from the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has now pointed out that nations like Zambia have suffered a dramatic decrease in agricultural productivity of commodities such as corn as a result of adopting green revolution policies.
The organisation has further spotlighted that the adoption of these new farming models has not only catalysed the deteriorating agricultural production but has also increased dependence on costly inputs, eroding local seed varieties and undermining soil fertility, with smaller farmers bearing the brunt.
“The devastation caused by the Green Revolution agenda in Zambia, where corn production has fallen by half and hunger is severe,” the statement noted.
