Farmers must play central role in Africa’s “Green Revolution”, say experts.

 

Salzburg Conference ends with rousing calls to action from Kofi Annan, Louis

Michel. Long-term initiative planned.

Salzburg, Austria, 5 May 2008

 

Against a background of spiralling world food prices, Kofi Annan this weekend reminded world

leaders that the unfolding world food crisis may roll back the progress that has been achieved by

African countries in the last decade. He challenged them to support Africa’s own efforts with

major new investments to accelerate growth in agriculture and sustain ongoing economic

recovery.

“We need to work together to turn things around on this continent,” the former UN secretarygeneral

said as he closed a landmark conference on the idea of a “Green Revolution” in Africa,

telling the assembled experts to “remain engaged, not only in seminars and discussion rooms but

action on the ground”. He also urged them to “engage with the farmers.”

Indeed, there was consensus in the conference, which was convened in Salzburg, Austria, by the

Salzburg Global Seminar, the Institute for Development Studies and the Future Agricultures

Consortium, that African farmers (many of whom are women) must be at the centre of any

successful effort to boost agricultural productivity, and that so far their voices had not been

sufficiently heard or taken into account.

Many African governments, both individually and working together through the African Union’s

Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), are already making

significant investments in agriculture, without waiting for massive injections of aid from abroad

– though in some countries the current high prices of inputs, notably fertilisers, may be holding

up progress.

The nature and precise meaning of a “uniquely African Green Revolution” (Mr. Annan’s phrase)

were vigorously debated by a wide range of African experts from government, independent think

tanks, civil society and farmers’ organizations, the private sector and philanthropic groups such

as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) – of which Mr. Annan is chairman.

Also addressing the conference, Louis Michel, EU Commissioner for Development and

Humanitarian Aid, warned that emergency food aid, however vital in the short term, “does not

provide any response to the structural and chronic causes” of the food security problem.

“Moreover,” he added, “food aid often causes perverse phenomena such as dependency or

turmoil in the markets, which have the effect of destroying any incentives for agricultural

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development in the countries that receive it… In the longer term, food security can only be

ensured by giving priority to agriculture.”

At a press conference earlier on Friday Mr. Annan had called for Europe to “follow suit” after

US President George W. Bush’s announcement on Thursday of new financial aid for African

agricultural development, in addition to emergency food aid. Mr. Michel pointed out that the

Commission had already doubled its support for the rural development sector (from €650m to

€1.2bn), and had also revised its aid programmes to align them more closely with CAADP.

Many speakers noted that, while in the short term high food prices were a serious threat to poor

people in Africa, even including many farmers, they also represented an incentive and an

opportunity to boost investment in increasing agricultural productivity, to which both

governments and the private sector must respond. Indeed, it was recalled that similar conditions

in Asia in the 1970s lay behind the increased investment in agriculture which had produced the

“green revolution” there.

Although the challenges facing African agriculture are much more complex than those that faced

Asia, due to different climatic and social conditions and poorer infrastructure, there was

agreement that Africa could learn lessons from both the successes and the mistakes of earlier

“green revolutions”; and also that there was a need for better coordination between the many

African initiatives and institutions now engaged in agricultural reform.

Already this weekend experts at the conference have moved on to a second stage of their

initiative, with the opening of a four-day seminar, entitled “Green Revolution in Africa: What

Framework for Success?”. These experts, joined by additional stakeholders, will seek to refine

the conference conclusions and produce workable strategies for application on the ground. The

issues of building stronger and broader alliances, and ensuring fuller participation by farmers’

representatives, will be at the centre of these debates.

The three institutions plan to organize workshops in different parts of Africa to test the

conclusions reached at Salzburg against the experience of African farmers, people engaged in the

transformation and marketing of agricultural products, and other stakeholders. The result,

sometime in 2009, should be a set of “Salzburg papers” – short, action-oriented briefs summing

up the most important lessons for policy-makers.