Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), stated that "Africa can feed Africa.
Africa should feed Africa. And I believe that Africa will feed Africa…if we set
our sights only on improving productivity, there is a very real danger that we
will grow more food in Africa without feeding more people. Results must be
measured NOT by higher yields alone, but by reduced poverty, improved
nutrition, cohesive societies and healthy ecosystems. And, agricultural
development must involve women who are too often... the most disadvantaged
members of rural societies."
Most of the world's food is grown by small scale farmers.
While it is called "traditional" agriculture, it is never static and
farmers constantly adapt. This traditional agriculture relies on a varied and
changing mix of crops, a polyculture, which provides a balanced diet, is
affordable for local farmers and can accommodate changing local conditions.
The Green Revolution relied on increasing acreages of
monocultures, mostly cereal grains, which also increased the use of herbicides,
insecticides and fertilizers as well as new varieties of high yielding crops.
Inputs that small farmers, those who fed the people, were never meant to
afford. It was an unsustainable system that called for too many inputs, too
much machinery and too much energy. Credit was an essential part of the Green
Revolution—creating debts that could never be repaid. And it did nothing to
empower women, who grow a considerable portion of the world's food. It gave
them no access to education, no power, and made it more difficult for them to
maintain the rights to their land. Most importantly, the Green Revolution did
not end hunger. The Green Revolution never met expectations in Africa. Green
Revolution was put forth as a solution to feed the hungry, it was also focused
on permanently allowing Western governments to dominate politics and national
economies—a new brand of colonialism.
As global agribusiness interests look to expand their
profits with the financial backing of the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
various “charitable” foundations and the political backing of the more
"developed" countries of the world (the G-8), Africa is the obvious
target to be saved and developed. Corporations profit, Western governments gain
control. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) seems to have all
the answers. Started by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations
and fronted by African dignitaries, their goals for Africa appear to be
remarkably similar to those of the first Green Revolution, increasing
agricultural production through increased inputs, monoculture farming,
production of grain crops for the global market and little in the way of
societal change to empower small scale farmers, women or the poor.
AGRA is focusing on private control rather than public—more
profit, less oversight. A prime example, private seed companies will produce
and sell their "improved" seed varieties to farmers, rather than
giving farmers access to publicly developed seeds. While most countries in
Africa have no commercial plantings of Genetically Modified (GM or GMO) crops,
many are conducting trials, aided by and politically pushed by Western
governments. While AGRA claims their partners are not currently selling GM
seeds in Africa, the push is clearly there. The Gates Foundation would like
their association with AGRA to appear as a strictly philanthropic venture, but,
it appears that as Monsanto stands to profit so does the Gates Foundation's
endowment. AGRA states that "only about one quarter of Africa's
small-holder farmers have access to good seeds"—and good seeds, in the
eyes of AGRA funders and partners, are GM seeds, seeds that must be purchased
every year, not farmer-saved seeds. Traditional seed laws that allow saving and
exchange between farmers are "outdated" according to AGRA and they
continue to push for changes in seed laws that would protect patented seed. AGRA
believes progress is large scale farming, mono-cultures, "improved"
GM seed, and a further industrialized agricultural system. However, none of
these have ended hunger. This style of agriculture thas not and will not feed
the world, though this is what we are constantly told to believe.
In Ghana, the national parliament has given full support to
the Plant Breeders Bill, which would restrict seed saving and swapping.
According to the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen,
"This system aims to compel farmers to purchase seeds for every planting
season." This bill, being pushed by AGRA, the G-8, USAID and corporate
agribusiness, will make it difficult to find any seed other than GM seed. For
bio-technology companies like Monsanto, Africa is the new frontier. Lots of
land, lots of people, lots of foreign investment money, and governments willing
to push their agenda. It all adds up to lots of profit.
Mercia Andrews, of the Trust for Community Outreach and
Education (TCOE) in South Africa, sees AGRA and the Green Revolution as "another
phase of colonialism."
"What we need," she stated, "is not more
charity and more investment of the kind that's being imposed on us, we need
solidarity, we need learning together from you, from the peasant farmers, from
the food movement, all these small markets that exist here, from the community
to community movement. People to people solidarity, not corporate
takeover."
Democracy and food sovereignty should determine the future
of Africa, not rich Africans or Western corporations.
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