Africa’s green revolution initiative has faltered: why other ways must be found

Small-scale farmers use oxen to plough their farm in Kericho County, Kenya. Photo by Billy Mutai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Timothy A. Wise, Tufts University

In July, the United Nations sounded alarms with its 2020 hunger report, which documented a 25% increase from 2019 to 2020 in the number of severely undernourished people in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa saw a similar spike with an estimated 44 million more people suffering severe hunger. COVID-19 and climate change were the proximate causes, but lagging productivity growth in agriculture contributed as well.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) was founded 15 years ago to address that productivity problem. With generous funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller foundations, the alliance was founded as an international NGO dedicated to addressing chronic hunger and poverty. It would do so by increasing yields in key food crops through the expanded use of commercial seeds and fertilisers. This is the “technology package” credited with raising agricultural productivity in what came to be known as the first Green Revolution in India and other parts of Asia and Latin America in the 1970s.

The alliance set two key ambitious goals to be achieved by 2020. The first was to double yields and incomes for 30 million smallholder farming households. The second was to reduce food insecurity by half. With funding from private foundations and a few western bilateral donors the organisation has focused on 13 African countries for most of its 15 years, spending about one billion dollars.

At Tufts University, we set out in 2020 to assess how well the organisation was achieving its own stated goals. The organisation refused to share data on its beneficiaries, giving no reason. So we examined data from its 13 priority countries – among them Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania – to see if there were indications that a productivity revolution was taking place, generating rising incomes and improved food security. We relied on data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Bank, which at the time had data through to 2018.

We found little evidence of significant productivity improvements. For a basket of staple crops, productivity increased just 18% over 12 years, practically the same rate as it had prior to the interventions by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. That is nowhere near its goal of doubling productivity, a 100% increase.

Income improvements were more difficult to assess due to limited data. But poverty levels remained high, particularly in rural areas. Most alarming, UN estimates of the number of severely “undernourished” people in those 13 countries increased 31% since 2006, a far cry from cutting food insecurity in half. More recent UN figures show that the number of severely hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole has grown 50% since the alliance’s founding in 2006.

No evidence of impact

The organisation’s defence is, strangely, that its budget represents just 1% of development funding in Africa. So it argues that it is unreasonable to expect that the impacts of its work would be reflected in national-level statistics. I offer two responses.

First, the organisation set its own ambitious goals. By any estimate, 30 million smallholder farming households represent a significant majority of farmers in the 13 focus countries. If the alliance had doubled yields and incomes and halved food insecurity for that many farming households, that would indeed have shown up in the data.

Second, our research did not focus on the organisation’s narrow impacts. Instead, we gave it the benefit of the doubt and assumed that its true objective was to catalyse a productivity revolution, in conjunction with the many other Green Revolution initiatives on the continent, not the least of which are direct subsidies for smallholders to buy seeds and fertilisers. Those provide as much as US$1 billion per year in support, a far more direct and significant contribution to the Green Revolution project.

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Read more: Ghana’s farmers aren’t all seeing the fruits of a Green Revolution

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Our research assessed the progress of the Green Revolution project as a whole. This should indeed have produced measurable results in 15 years given the billions of dollars invested in the project. It has not.

Since the publication of our research, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa has been unable to provide evidence of its positive impacts on productivity, incomes and food security. Its recently published 2020 Annual Report claims to do so, but my view is it presents only short-term changes for small samples of crops and countries.

A flawed ‘theory of change’

Our research paper calls into question the very premises of the Green Revolution’s “theory of change”. The theory is that if seeds and fertilisers are put in the hands of small-scale farmers, their yields will double, as will their incomes from the sale of surplus crops. And they will become food secure from the crops they grow and the food they can now afford to buy.

We found that:

Adoption rates of high-yield seeds and synthetic fertilisers are low, in part because the inputs are expensive and do not produce high enough yields. Even with subsidised inputs, yields have failed to increase dramatically.

With relatively small yield increases there is little more to sell. For many farmers the added income from sales does not cover the costs of the inputs. The incentives to abandon more diverse cropping systems can actually undermine food security by decreasing diet diversity and reducing climate resilience. Severe hunger in the 13 focus countries has increased by 30%.

Temporary increases in yields from Green Revolution inputs tend to wane over time. Soil fertility decreases under monocultures fed by synthetic fertilisers. Farmers grow dependent on subsidies and risk going into debt.

The failures outlined here implicate a range of initiatives, not just the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Yet this year’s African Green Revolution Forum seeks to celebrate these entities in advance of the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit on September 24.

The alliance claims its forum this year speaks with a “singular coordinated African voice.” Outside the forum, representatives from the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, a broad network representing some 200 million food producers, demanded an end to AGRA’s funding. In the words of Alliance leader Million Belay:

We welcome investment in agriculture on our continent. But we seek it in a form that is democratic and responsive to the people at the heart of agriculture.

It is important that this diversity of voices is heard and respected.

Timothy A. Wise, Senior Research Fellow, Global Development and Environment, Tufts University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

3 reasons to study science communication beyond the West

A wall relief from the British Museum shows three scribes amid a military campaign of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III, in Babylonia (Iraq). WikiCommons

Lindy Orthia, Australian National University; Dan C H Hikuroa, University of Auckland; Ehsan Nabavi, Australian National University; Francesca Rochberg, University of California, Berkeley, and Paula DeVos, San Diego State University

Ask a science communicator how old their field is. They might say a few decades, or even centuries, because they’re thinking about the Western science communication tradition associated with a scientist-public gap.

These days, we almost exclusively associate science communication with Western science. Yet humans have always communicated knowledge about the world within their own societies and to others. There’s evidence of this going back tens of thousands of years.

Society today should recognise past and ongoing science communication approaches that diverge from the West’s relatively recent ones.

Also, as we have explored in a paper and webinar, we should include this knowledge in science communication histories. Here are three reasons why.

1. Framing science as ‘Western’ is political

The histories we tell are political. Political factors can determine important elements such as where a story begins and ends and what is included or excluded. Histories of science aren’t immune to this.

We often equate science and scientific practice with a gold standard of credibility. But there’s much rhetorical power behind the “science” label.

Some influential 20th-century scholars, such as the late British historian Herbert Butterfield, valorised Western science and judged other sources of human knowledge production as failed attempts.

Others such as Andrew Cunningham, while trying to redress that tendency, defined “science” so narrowly that only the Western version of professional knowledge production applied.

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Read more: It’s taken thousands of years, but Western science is finally catching up to Traditional Knowledge

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Both these stances denigrate non-Western knowledge systems as lesser, by excluding them from “science”.

They have shaped science communication histories taught today, wherein we mostly ignore the diverse ways in which cultures across the world have communicated knowledge.

Thus, most science communicators lack insight into how these cultures tailored their communication to different audiences, aims and mediums.

Did you know medieval European medical writers regularly used Arabic pseudonyms for their published works to confer prestige?

This was because, at the time, Arabic cultures demonstrated strong leadership in pharmaceuticals and other scientific fields across the Afro-Asian-European landmass.

Or consider the Persian engineers who built ingenious constructions to provide water, air conditioning and refrigeration to desert communities thousands of years ago.

They communicated their technical expertise over generations through spoken word and actions.

This is an ancient Ab Anbar from the Iranian desert city of Naeen. It’s a reservoir of drinking water that is part of a qanat water system, kept cool by windcatchers. Wikimedia Commons/Zereshk

Such snippets offer deep insight into myriad science communication cultures. Unfortunately, they’re rarely included in science communication histories today.

To borrow from Peter Pormann, a professor of Classics and Graeco-Arabic Studies at the University of Manchester, this is a case of intellectual amnesia.

It may be historians’ wish to respect diverse cultural categories, since “science communication” is an English term associated with Western culture. But a side effect of this is a profoundly Eurocentric approach.

This cutout of Ibn Sina, or Abu Ali Sina, is taken from a Tajikistan banknote. The Persian physician, astronomer and philosopher lived during the Islamic Golden Age and is often regarded the father of early modern medicine. Shutterstock

2. Human cultures are diverse and wonderful

All over the world, different science communication systems have been adapted to different locations, lifestyles, cultures and histories. They are manifestations of a glorious wealth of human expertise and creativity and should be celebrated, not ignored.

Some are poetic, some instructional. Some were used to bridge cultures and some to maintain knowledge throughout generations, over centuries and even millennia.

Māori pūrākau (stories) are one example of a narrative technique for communicating mātauranga (Māori knowledge) about the environment, culture, values and more.

Westerners often dismiss pūrākau as myths. In fact, they encode evidence-based knowledge, gathered and tested over many ages, into a metaphor-driven form of communication.

One pūrākau associated with the Waitepuru stream in the Matatā region of Aotearoa New Zealand describes a “taniwha” — in this case a lizard whose tail flicks from side to side.

The serpent-like taniwah Ureia was guardian of the Hauraki people and, based on different accounts, was said to take the form of a fish or school of fish. WikiCommons

Among this pūrākau’s many meanings is a warning about the stream’s movement over time, indicating where it’s dangerous to build.

The pūrākau encodes complex hydrogeological knowledge that has been observed, tested and communicated over centuries.

The Māori process of constructing knowledge on the evidence of time-honoured experience is, in fact, consistent with Western science’s expectations of evidence-based knowledge.

Yet, strategies such as pūrākau for communicating that knowledge are culturally-specific and unique. Science communicators should pay them attention as part of the rich diversity of global knowledge communication.

3. Science communication should be inclusive

The past few years have seen the science communication discipline come under heavy fire for exclusionary practices.

The strongest supporting evidence comes from University College London science communication researcher Emily Dawson. She worked with low-income ethnic minority communities in London who weren’t heavily involved in science communication practices.

They didn’t visit science centres or museums. Dawson’s work showed “powerlessness” and “cultural imperialism” (feelings of being “othered”) were key reasons why.

Western science museum exhibits incorporating historical narratives may tell stories about the world from a European perspective. This can perpetuate racism and ratify European colonialism.

If European-descended Westerners are the only demographic who see their culture reflected and respected in science communication histories, this can lead to further social exclusion.

For cultural resilience and continuity, we must support knowledge-keepers’ efforts to sustain their science communication practices.

Even where ancient practices are no longer part of a society’s contemporary life, cultural roots still matter.

For instance, many modern Iraqis have great interest in the 2,000-year-old cuneiform cultures of Babylonia and Assyria. Exploring cuneiform science and its communication practices should be on our collective agenda.

Who had access to Babylonian knowledge about lunar eclipses? Within what worldview did Babylonians frame that knowledge?

These are exciting questions we can and should explore, to ensure the science communication histories we learn and teach leave none behind.

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Read more: Friday essay: the recovery of cuneiform, the world’s oldest known writing

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Lindy Orthia, Senior Lecturer in Science Communication, Australian National University; Dan C H Hikuroa, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland; Ehsan Nabavi, Lecturer in Science and Technology, Australian National University; Francesca Rochberg, Distinguished Professor of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and Paula DeVos, , San Diego State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Q&A: Scientific African is showcasing R&D for impact

By Stephanie Achieng’

In March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, the Scientific African, a new peer-reviewed, open access scientific journal dedicated to African research was launched. In December 2018, the maiden issue of the journal was published.

The journal received its 500th submission last month (19 February).

In an exclusive interview with SciDev.Net after such a feat for a new journal, Benjamin Apraku Gyampoh, its editor-in-chief, discussed the strides made so far and plans the journal has to actively disseminate its published articles and make them impactful.

Why should African scientists publish in the Scientific African?

Publishing research in the Scientific African journal by African scientists is very important for them, for the continent and for the development of science in Africa. Together, we are developing a brand which will be a testimony of the excellence of science in Africa.

“This is the place for scientists who want to create the Africa we want to stand up and be counted.”

Benjamin Apraku Gyampoh, Scientific African

The journal looks out for scientific solutions to address challenges on the continent. This is the place for scientists who want to create the Africa we want to stand up and be counted. The editorial culture we have is ensuring excellence and relevance. Our editors are excellent scientists in their own capacities who are dedicated to developing science on the continent and using science to find solutions for Africa.

These dedicated people understand the context of Africa and the issues relevant to the continent and work on them with passion. Together, the editors are working hard to help the journal achieve more for Africa.

How is the journal highlighting research that finds local solutions to local problems?

The journal is giving a platform to research in Africa, on Africa, about Africa and with relevance to Africa. Manuscripts have been received from researchers on the continent and outside the continent who are Africans and non-Africans.

The interest is in the scientific merit and the relevance of the work to Africa in getting the Africa we want and also achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

How is the journal expanding access to African researchers largely lacking platforms to showcase their research?

Scientific African is giving a modern and visible platform to Africa researchers across the continent. The journal is truly expanding access to African researchers. The journal has received submissions from authors in about two thirds of the continent in less than one year since it was launched.

This speaks volumes. It shows that many researchers on the continent have now found a home to publish their research.

In what ways is the journal ensuring that articles published in it reach a wider audience?

I do not envisage that research articles published in Scientific African will join many others that end up stocked in only scientific journals. And not envisaging something does not mean that it cannot happen.

I do not envisage such a situation because the journal has programmes in place to highlight its articles to ensure that this does not happen.

The innovation that Scientific African brings to the table is following through after publishing its articles.  The journal believes that the success of research lies in its ability to influence and change society for the better. For example, after the first issue was published, Scientific African Magazine was also published that disseminated the research outputs in forms such as questions and answers with authors, news on key articles and interaction with society on what they think of the publication and how it will help them. The journal will seek more opportunities for highlighting impact.

What plans does the journal have to actively disseminate the findings specifically to policymakers?

In addition to the publication of Scientific African Magazine, Next Einstein Forum — the owner of the journal — and co-publisher Elsevier, have other means to ensure that articles published in the journal reach policymakers and other key audiences.

These include active and wide dissemination of the publications through social media platforms such as Twitter.  The Next Einstein Forum also has effective means of engaging decision-makers on the continent and they will be carrying the work published in Scientific African to decision-makers at the continental and national levels during their engagements.

“The journal believes that the success of research lies in its ability to influence and change society for the better.”

Benjamin Apraku Gyampoh, Scientific African

The team at Scientific African recognises that sustained efforts are required to get outputs from the journal to catch the attention of policymakers and to contribute to evidence-based decision-making.

What have been the greatest challenges the journal has encountered thus far?

The Next Einstein Forum has put in their best in realising the vision of Scientific African. Editors have worked extremely hard. Reviewers have been thorough. So generally there have not been great challenges on the side of the journal.

But we would like to get better. I use this opportunity to thank our editors and reviewers for their dedication, diligence and for identifying with the vision of Scientific African.

I would like to encourage more scientists to be interested in becoming reviewers. Reviewing is a responsibility scientists owe to each other in driving growth in the scientific community.

Are you convinced that this journal is promoting scientific excellence and partnerships in Africa?

I am very convinced that this journal is promoting scientific excellence and partnerships in Africa. Scientists are getting to know what each other is doing at different parts of the continent. Even among editors in the same section, people are getting to know each other now.

Since the first issue was published, there has been a significant increase in submissions to the journal. In my assessment, it is a manifestation of acceptance by the scientific community of the quality of the journal. No researcher wants to publish their work in a platform they consider to be inferior. It is a long journey we have started and we are prepared for it.

With the help of the scientists themselves and the mass media, Scientific African will continue to promote scientific excellence and partnerships in Africa.

Q&As are edited for length and clarity.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.

This article by Stephanie Achieng’ was originally published on SciDev.Net. Read the original article.

Biofortification: Combatting malnutrition

Vitamin A orange sweet potato in Uganda (photo: HarvestPlus)

Developing more nutritious crops through biofortification is providing much needed nutrients and helping to provide better quality diets for rural communities

Nearly 2 billion people suffer from iron deficiency, while one-quarter of the world’s people are at risk from insufficient dietary zinc or vitamin A. Eating a more varied diet provides a greater intake of micronutrients, but this may not be possible for many poor families. However, by using a process called biofortification to improve the nutrient value of specific staple crops, scientists can help farmers grow more nutritious food using the same land and resources.

Biofortification uses biotechnology, conventional plant breeding or agronomy to improve nutritional quality of food. Examples include boosting iron in rice, sweet potato, cassava and legumes; vitamin A in cassava and maize; zinc in wheat, rice, beans, sweet potato and maize; and protein in sorghum and cassava. The method is already well-established around the world – about 20 million people have access to enriched beans, rice, wheat, pearl millet, maize, sweet potato and cassava. By 2030, more than 1 billion people could be eating biofortified crops. For farmers with limited ability to produce more crops, growing biofortified crops on the same land could have a highly beneficial effect on health.

A dedicated approach

Getting biofortified food onto the world’s dinner plates has been a long journey, requiring flexibility, persistence and dedication. Dr Howarth Bouis and the team at HarvestPlus have led the way and were recently awarded the 2016 World Food Prize for their efforts over 20 years. HarvestPlus has played a key role in developing and distributing biofortified crops and in educating a range of stakeholders about the advantages of crops that are higher in zinc, iron and vitamin A.

Biofortified crops have so far been released in 30 countries and tests are underway in 25 more. “The crops have been tried, tested and proven effective in improving nutrition for people in developing countries,” states Dr Bouis. “The huge job now is getting the farmers to take them up and getting the consumers to eat them.”

Like consumers everywhere, farmers and their families can be cautious about trying new varieties. Persuading them to do so requires targeted information campaigns and time for results to be seen and word to get around. An added complexity is that some biofortified crops look and taste different. But this is not the case in zinc and iron-rich crops, such as beans. In Rwanda, 10 varieties of iron-rich beans have been released, and they are the same in appearance and taste as beans currently on the market. The beans have higher yields as well as higher iron content and researchers hope that they will become the preferred product.

Other crops such as cassava, maize and sweet potato do take on a different taste and appearance when fortified with vitamin A, with the crops turning from white to orange. Communities need the chance to learn about the new products before they decide to grow them or buy them, so information activities must target both farmers and consumers.

Engaging women

In many countries, women are key to improving nutrition and health in their families. For communities to accept the new biofortified crops, women must be engaged at every stage of the process. For example, local people may be employed to spread the word, sometimes holding blindfolded tastings where women are asked which sweet potato or other food they prefer, and whether or not they would buy the enriched product for the sake of their family’s health. If the price is the same and they like the taste – and the word is that the crops are well accepted – women choose the vitamin A-enriched food for their family.

In Namwenda, in eastern Uganda, a group of women wearing distinctive orange t-shirts are spreading the word about nutritious crops, good hygiene and sanitation practices. Known as Mama Ndhisa, the women deliver their messages through activities such as community meetings and visits to local villagers, using pictorial story cards and other aids. The name Mama Ndhisa reflects community affection for these mothers and for the vitamin A-rich orange sweet potatoes they promote.

All the women take part with the support of their husbands. They are held in high regard, explains Aloysius Olweny, Namwenda’s sub-county chief. “Take note of the ladies who are participating, because they are exemplary,” he says. “They also teach others about nutrition … they are moving forward to motivate these people.” Olweny states that encouraging men to support their wives was important for the success of the information campaign. “Men want to be involved in cash crop growing and things like that, but when they see the improvement in income, in health with fewer diseases, they get motivated to help their wife.”

Support from leaders at all levels

For a country to embrace biofortified crops, there needs to be support at every level – locally, as in Namwenda in Uganda, as well as nationally, regionally and internationally.

The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition has urged policymakers to adopt biofortification as one element of a nutrient-sensitive national agricultural research and investment strategy. “Policymakers have a key role to play in tackling hidden hunger,” says Sir John Beddington, Global Panel co-chair. “Biofortification complements the existing mix of micronutrient interventions available to governments.”

In the Global Panel report, Biofortification: An Agricultural Investment for Nutrition, micronutrient malnutrition is shown to be associated with the rapidly growing problem of obesity and non-communicable diseases. The authors state that low-quality diets based heavily on highly processed, nutrient-poor foods lie at the core of the problem. “When biofortified crops are combined with interventions that promote dietary diversification, real progress can be made to benefit millions of households. In Nigeria for instance, with the strengthened regulatory and legal framework and infrastructural support, Nigerian multiplication programmes are expected to allow 80 million Nigerians to have access to more-nutritious diets in the coming four years,” the report said.

The Global Panel emphasises that biofortification should not be looked at in isolation. “Policymakers should not see it as an alternative to other nutrition-enhancing interventions, but consider it as one component of a suite of complementary strategies to reduce micronutrient deficiencies,” the Panel said.

Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank and former Nigerian Minister for Agriculture, has called for an end to malnutrition in Africa, saying that the continent has all it needs to win in agriculture. Speaking at the seventh African Agricultural Science Week in June 2016 in Rwanda, he noted that Africa spends €30 billion each year on importing food, a figure that is projected to grow to €98 billion by 2025. “Africa is importing what it should be producing, creating poverty within Africa and exporting jobs outside of Africa,” he said. Any shock to global food production would affect prices in Africa, especially in rural areas, so investing in agriculture makes economic and security sense.

Adesina noted successes in Rwanda, which has drastically reduced malnutrition, and in Senegal, which is on the way to becoming self-sufficient in rice. “And with technologies from science, we can do even more,” he said. New iron-enriched beans, orange-fleshed sweet potato, high-lysine maize and vitamin A-rich cassava are already improving crop yields and nutrition.

Food security emergency in Southern Africa

In Southern Africa, FAO estimates that nearly 40 million people will be affected by food insecurity in 2017. The chilling figure reflects high levels of unemployment and under-employment, which are exacerbated by the most severe drought in 35 years, which scientists are linking to the El Niño weather event. Most people in the region eat food they grow themselves. Chimimba David Phiri, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa, said that “Assisting them to do this will provide life-saving support in a region where at least 70% of people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods.”

As drought continues, prices for maize and other crops have risen. FAO officials warn that 23 million people need urgent support to grow enough food to feed themselves, or they will be dependent on humanitarian assistance until the middle of 2018. Farmers must be able to plant by October 2016. “Failure to do so will result in another reduced harvest in March 2017, severely affecting food and nutrition security and livelihoods in the region,” FAO said.

Agricultural experts say a good harvest is necessary in March 2017 to help families escape the country’s food crisis. “We have had two bad [growing] seasons, and a lot of farmers do not have adequate seeds,” said Phiri. “We need to support the farmers to have the seed that they need for them to grow this season, and also to avoid a problem of having continued humanitarian support.”

In Zimbabwe, many children do not get enough to eat. The United Nations Children’s Fund warned in March 2016 that the country is facing its worst child malnutrition rates in 15 years, with rural areas particularly at risk. FAO is helping the country’s farmers affected by the drought.

Last month, the agency began giving biofortified maize and bean seeds to farmers. Those seeds are designed to produce crops high in valuable nutrients. Initially, the seed programme is targeting about 127,000 small farm households in eight areas. Over time, it will spread to other parts of the country. Farmer Mirriam Chagweja said she is glad she planted the new seeds in her fields in Silobela, about 300 km south-west of Harare. In February 2016 she planted fortified maize and beans, using seeds provided by the UK Department for International Development. Chagweja said she got more beans from these seeds than from the other kinds of beans. “I would encourage others to go on board and join,” she said.

Looking to the future

Trials continue with new biofortified crops and varieties. WHO lists a range of current biofortification trials, including vitamin A-enriched maize for mothers and infants in a range of locations, vitamin A-enriched cassava for Nigerian preschool children and pearl millet enriched with both zinc and iron to boost cognitive ability and immunity to infections in Indian babies. While biofortification and genetic modification are different processes, groups such as HarvestPlus are keeping an eye on developments. To date, HarvestPlus has used only conventional breeding techniques, and not genetic modification, to develop its 150 varieties of 12 different nutrient-enriched crops. This has allowed them to get their crops into use as quickly as possible, in as many countries as possible.

There remain many barriers and political opposition to transgenics, despite the scientific community establishing that the method is safe, says Bouis. HarvestPlus is researching the technology and it may be an option in the future, for example, in areas such as increasing iron levels that have been difficult to achieve with conventional breeding.

This article by Magali Reinert was originally published on the Spore website

Arla Dairy: Setting up in West Africa

The fifth largest dairy in the world is setting up in Nigeria and Senegal. Arla Foods, a Danish company, intends to increase its revenue in the region fivefold by 2020. What impact will this have on local producers and consumers?

Strengthening Senegal’s local milk industry will help meet consumers’ needs. Photo credit: Kamikazz photo agency

The Danish dairy cooperative, which includes 12,700 European farmers among its members, is set to take over the West African dairy market. In Nigeria, where it already has a presence, Arla Foods plans to triple its turnover.

To achieve this, Arla Dairy Products has been created which, since September 2015, has been responsible for packaging, marketing and distributing Arla products under the Dano brand within the country.

In Senegal, where it does not yet have a presence, the company has created a subsidiary for which it holds 75% of the capital. Arla Sénégal SA will have the same roles in Senegal as its counterpart in Nigeria.

The Senegalese milk market already contains several large companies, such as the French companies Lactalis and Danone, which have partnered with a local company, Laiterie du Berger.

“West Africa faces a milk deficit, which gives Arla an opportunity to provide milk powder and other dairy products that meet consumers’ needs. We are here to build a long-term business, and that requires strong local partners,” says Steen Hadsbjerg, head of sub-Saharan Africa at Arla Foods.

However, in Senegal, the ‘local partners’ are not milk producers. Arla argues that the low quantity and quality of local milk means that supplies should come exclusively from imported goods. However Arla also highlights possible negative impacts of mass imports on the local markets, with consumers switching to powdered milk exclusively and dairy farmers being unable to sell their products.

For this reason, Guillaume Bastard, an expert in agricultural sectors and representative of the French development NGO, GRET, in Senegal believes it would be better to support the milk industry and help producers improve the quality and quantity of the milk produced.

“Of course, building up the local milk sector is a real challenge, but milk products are currently Senegal’s second most imported foodstuff, amounting to CFA 65 billion (€39 million) annually. Local businesses, the government and dairy farmers all have an interest in seeing it done so that income can be redistributed to the most marginalised rural populations,” he concludes.

This article by Anne Perin was originally posted on the Spore website at http://www.spore.cta.int/en/business/setting-up-in-west-africa.html

Happy New Year 2016, the International Year of Pulses

Bean market in Masaka, Uganda. Credit: Neil Palmer (CIAT).

A very Happy New Year to you. The United Nations has declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. This is a global opportunity to raise awareness on the important role of pulses in contributing to food security and nutritional well-being for millions of people around the world.

According to the United Nations International Year of Pulses website, the aim of this special year is to “heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition. The Year will create a unique opportunity to encourage connections throughout the food chain that would better utilize pulse-based proteins, further global production of pulses, better utilize crop rotations and address the challenges in the trade of pulses.”

Visit the website of the Global Pulse Confederation for more information on how you can take part in promoting the International Year of Pulses or follow the online conversations at #IYP2016.

Happy New Year!

Agri-biotech experts call on Kenya to lift ban on GMO imports

Delegates from 30 countries from around the world, attending an international Agri-biotechnology and Biosafety Communication (ABBC 2015) conference in Nairobi have called on the Government of Kenya to lift a 2-year ban on GMO imports.

Addressing the delegates who comprised farmers, scientists, policymakers, private sector, the media and science communicators, the Principal Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development, Dr Wilson Songa, emphasized the role of agricultural biotechnology in propelling the country towards prosperity.

“To harness this potential, the GMO import ban must be lifted,” he said. In addition, he said that Kenya has adequate capacity to develop and ensure safety of GMO products.

Members of Parliament present called upon the government to release the report by the Ministry of Health task force that was set up to look into the safety of GM foods, following the ban on GMO imports.

The ABBC conference brought together organizations and networks involved in agri-biotechnology and biosafety communication around the world to take stock of the progress and dynamics of agri-biotechnology communication over the past two decades. It was organized by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) AfriCenter, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, the National Commission for Science Technology and Innovation among other partners.

One of the key lessons was that agri-biotechnology and biosafety communications must be simplified and messages delivered in appropriate languages for different stakeholders to make impact.

The delegates came up with the following Nairobi Declaration 2015:

We, the participants of the International Conference on Agri-Biotechnology and Biosafety Communication, held on 13-14 April 2015 in Nairobi, representing the academic and research community, civil society, law makers and policy advisors, the media, farmers and other stakeholders drawn from 30 countries across the world, collectively issue the following statement resulting from this conference:

Whereas

1. The world faces unique and particular food security challenges in future, as the human population increases towards a likely 9.6 billion by 2050 and climate change raises additional problems for agriculture in terms of water and temperature stress, increased disasters and extreme weather;
2. Some progress has been made in meeting the Millennium Development Goals on extreme poverty, malnutrition, infant mortality and food security. Much work remains to be done to ensure that citizens of all countries enjoy the full opportunity of healthy and sustainable access to food;
3. Biotechnology and genetic engineering, while not being the only solutions to these challenges, offer great potential in addressing many specific concerns in food production, including micro-nutrient deficiencies, productivity and yield gaps, pest and disease problems;
4. There exists an international scientific consensus that the ‘genetic modification’ process itself does not raise any risks over conventional breeding approaches;
5. The debate around genetically modified products continues and is often characterized by emotive and misleading information about purported dangers that are not supported by any scientific evidence;
6. Highly restrictive policy and regulatory environments exist in parts of the world, greatly hampering the capacity of farmers to access innovations that will improve farm productivity, household incomes and food security;

We hereby declare our commitment and determination

1. To work collectively to improve the communications environment, including the use of the latest as well as traditional communication strategies to ensure effectiveness.
2. To work inclusively, with all stakeholders, including those opposed to this technology, in an effort to build consensus and common understanding.
3. To promote choice, so that farmers, consumers and other end-users can make informed decisions that reflect their best interests.
4. To address the concerns of people at all levels, to ensure the widest participation possible.
5. To demonstrate how agricultural production challenges can be tackled using biotechnology, and how it can directly contribute to food and nutrition security, poverty alleviation, job creation and sustainable economic development.
6. To support credible scientists who are most trusted by the public and governments to be effective communicators and to have a closer relationship with the media and policymakers to ensure that scientifically-informed messages reach target audiences.

In particular, we gratefully acknowledge the active participation of Members of the Kenya National Assembly and many senior government representatives who participated in this conference and welcome their invaluable inputs to ensure the current ban on importation and consumption of GM foods in Kenya is lifted.

Call for abstracts: Kenya’s 2015 National Science Week

Kenya’s National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology have issued a call for abstracts for the fourth National Science Week to be held on 11-15 May 2015 in Nairobi.

The event consists of an exhibition, robotics contest and a conference. The aim of the conference is to share and identify practical, evidence-based solutions to science and technology development in the post-2015 agenda in line with Kenya’s Vision 2030 national strategic development plan.

The conference will bring together academia, researchers, scientists and practitioners working in universities, research organisations, industry, civil society, government and other stakeholders.

The theme of the conference is The role of science and technology in the post-2015 development agenda. The sub-themes are:

• agriculture and food security
• energy and climate change
• environmental and natural resource management
• water, sanitation and health
• knowledge management and technology transfer

Visit the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology website for more information on how to submit abstracts.

The deadline for submission is 31 March 2015.

New atlas maps data on Africa’s smallholder agriculture research and development

The work of agricultural researchers and development workers in Africa has the potential to significantly improve the lives of the poor. But that potential can only be realized with easy access to high-quality data and information.

The Atlas of African Agriculture Research & Development highlights the ubiquitous role of smallholder agriculture in Africa; the many factors shaping the location, nature, and performance of agricultural enterprises; and the strong interdependencies among farming, natural-resource stocks and flows, and the well-being of the poor.

Organized around seven themes, the atlas covers more than 30 topics, each providing mapped geospatial data and supporting text that answers four fundamental questions:

• What is this map telling us?
• Why is this important?
• What about the underlying data?
• Where can I learn more?

The atlas is part of a wide-ranging eAtlas initiative that will showcase, through print and online resources, a variety of spatial data and tools generated and maintained by a community of research scientists, development analysts, and practitioners working in and for Africa.

The initiative will serve as a guide, with references and links to online resources to introduce readers to a wealth of data that can inform efforts to improve the livelihoods of Africa’s rural poor.

New book features case studies on climate-smart agriculture in Africa

Earlier this year, I came across a newly published book, Evidence of Impact: Climate-smart Agriculture in Africa. It features 11 case studies on various climate-smart agriculture practices across Africa’s diverse farming systems and climatic conditions.

Climate-smart agriculture is all about increasing agricultural productivity in a sustainable manner in the midst of the challenges of a changing climate and environmental degradation.

Among the projects highlighted in the book are the East Africa Dairy Development project in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania; the Great Green Wall of the Sahara and Sahel Initiative; the Drought-Tolerant Maize for Africa project in 13 countries of eastern, southern and West Africa; and the Sustainable Agricultural Development of the Highlands project operating across North Africa in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.

The publication “aims to inspire farmers, researchers, business leaders, policy makers and NGOs to take up the mantle of climate-smart agriculture and accelerate the transformation of Africa’s agriculture into a more sustainable and profitable sector”.

Happy New Year 2015, the International Year of Soils

Sharifa Juma digs terraces to stop soil erosion in Lushoto, Tanzania. Photo credit: Georgina Smith / CIAT.

Greetings and a very Happy New Year 2015! As we begin yet another new year, we say goodbye to 2014, the International Year of Family Farming, and usher in 2015, the International Year of Soils.

The 68th United Nations General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been nominated to implement the International Year of Soils within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership and in collaboration with governments and the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

The International Year of Soils aims to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of soil for food security and essential ecosystem functions.

The specific objectives are to:

• raise awareness among civil society and decision-makers about the importance of soil for human life;
• educate the public about the crucial role soil plays in food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, essential ecosystem services, poverty alleviation and sustainable development;
• support effective policies and actions for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources;
• promote investment in sustainable soil management activities to develop and maintain healthy soils for different land users and population groups;
• strengthen initiatives in connection with the Sustainable Development Goals process and post-2015 agenda; and
• advocate for rapid capacity enhancement for soil information collection and monitoring at all levels (global, regional and national).

Visit the 2015 International Year of Soils website to find out more.

African Development Bank and IFPRI publish report on the status of agri-biotechnology in Africa

Agricultural biotechnology has been used to address constraints in agriculture and has the potential to make a major contribution to the overall goal of sustainable intensification.

The adoption of agricultural biotechnology, and specifically genetically modified (GM) crops, by many African countries has been quite limited to date, however.

To further inform the debate over agricultural biotechnology, a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the African Development Bank collects current information on the status of biotechnology in Africa—with an emphasis on GM crops—and assesses the opportunities offered by and constraints on adoption.

The authors provide information about the region’s limited financial, technical, regulatory, and legal capacities while additionally focusing on the role of trade concerns and conflicting information as limiting factors that affect adoption.

The authors also identify several initiatives that could help overcome these obstacles, such as increasing public investments in agricultural biotechnology research and development; improving regulatory frameworks and regulatory capacity; and developing an effective and broad-based communications strategy.

These and other recommendations should be useful to policymakers, development specialists, and others who are concerned about the potential role that biotechnology could play in Africa as an additional tool for sustainable agriculture development.

Access the report, GM agricultural technologies for Africa: A state of affairs

Farmers in Kenya to gain from new facilities aimed at controlling aflatoxins

An article in SciDev.Net by Esther Nakkazi reports on the recent opening of a new laboratory and biopesticide processing plant in Kenya. The two facilities will help research, monitor and control aflatoxin contamination in staple crops.

Read the full article on SciDev.Net, Farmers to gain from projects to combat aflatoxins

Happy Farmers’ Day, Ghana!

While scrolling through my Twitter feed this afternoon, I found out from a Tweet by a Ghanaian photographer that today is Farmers’ Day, a national holiday, in Ghana.

Today is Farmers’ Day in Ghana. It is a national holiday. I want to join the millions of voices of… http://t.co/IPRYyXvQmq

— Nana Kofi Acquah (@africashowboy) December 5, 2014

I think it’s quite remarkable that Ghana would set aside a special day to honour and celebrate the millions of farmers who work so hard to provide food and nourishment for the country.

It got me thinking… which other African countries celebrate their farmers with a national holiday? If you know of any, please let me know by posting a comment in response to this blog post.

Meanwhile, I wish the people of Ghana a very Happy Farmers’ Day!

Call for papers: 9th JKUAT scientific, technological and industrialization conference

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) has announced its 9th annual scientific, technological and industrialization conference to be held on 13-14 November 2014 at the JUKAT Main Campus in Juja, Nairobi, Kenya.

The theme of the conference is Science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship for sustainable development. 

The objectives of the conference are to:

1. Provide a forum through which the university will disseminate the ongoing contributions it is making to the society.
2. Create a forum for constantly improving the university’s approach to development-oriented scientific research, as it strives to remain a leader in this area.
3. Provide a forum for research peers from local and international institutions to discuss, share and publish vital information.
4. Provide an opportunity for the industry to interact with researchers and innovators through exhibitions.
5. Provoke policymakers to appreciate the need for substantial and long-term investments in scientific research, innovation and industrialization.

For more information and to find out how to register, please visit the conference website.