The World Economic Forum on Africa has been hearing good news from the continent in the midst of expressions of gloom and disaster attributed to the global recession. The good news from Africa is that the 'Green Revolution' is taking hold.

Delegates heard from former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan on Thursday about the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which he heads, and on Friday morning they were told that the alliance, now two years old, is already using its funds to stimulate farmers, seed and fertiliser dealers and distributors to greater productivity, prompted by innovations in rural financing.

The AGRA funds come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation (the proud boast of the alliance is that Rockefeller gave it the biggest grant ever made by the foundation in its near-100 year history). The alliance is also supported by USAid, the British DFID, and the World Bank.

An example of the alliance's success was explained by the agriculture minister of Tanzania, Stephen Wassira. He told delegates that the average annual production of his country was around five million tons of grain. Last year a drought virtually obliterated production in the north of the country, but in the south where AGRA had concentrated its efforts in only four districts, the total grain production amounted to 5.2 million tons.

Akini Adesina, a vice-president of AGRA, explained that its policy presently is to concentrate on what he called the breadbasket of the continent, those countries in the centre of Africa which cover the Sahel plains, the forest areas and the moist savannas.

He said that 65 new crop varieties have been introduced into the area to increase production of millet, sorghum, maize cassava and rice. "Most of these have been produced by national breeding programmes," he said.

"Smaller and medium-sized seed enterprises have been enabled to distribute thousands of tons of seed. And reforming the distribution networks has cut down the distance that framers have to travel in Kenya to find seed and fertiliser from an average of 70 kilometres to only four."

AGRA has also committed funds into risk sharing, and already Standard Bank has invested $100-million to agriculture. The Equity bank has committed another $50-million.

I-Net Bridge

RSS
Digg
de.li.cious
facebook