Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa: a strategic partnership between the Rockefeller Foundation and

the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Source: African Crops News Service

Over the last 15 years, the number of Africans living below the poverty line has increased by 50 percent and it is estimated that almost 200 millionfc people in Africa (over one third of the population) suffer from significant hunger.  Funding for African agricultural development has declined over the past two decades, but renewed interest presents an opportunity to overcome current barriers and improve agricultural productivity and small holder farmer well-being throughout the continent.  To achieve this vision, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) are forming a new Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

The example of Asia’s Green Revolution provides helpful context and precedent.  Before all else, the original Green Revolution was a product of philanthropy, in a carefully negotiated partnership with government. The partnership began in Mexico: after seeking and receiving an invitation from the Mexican government, the Rockefeller Foundation created the Oficina de Estudios Especiales within the Mexican Department of Agriculture, initially staffed by scientists on the Rockefeller payroll.  Over time the effort expanded to Colombia, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and farther into Latin America and Asia. Among the pioneers in this effort was plant pathologist Norman Borlaug, who remained a Rockefeller Foundation officer for the next 39 years. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his Green Revolution work in 1970. The Green Revolution was not solely a triumph of unfettered science, Western largesse, or the free market — three of the favorite solutions in much of the popular debate over Africa today.  It was in part an act of philanthropy, enlisting experts, government, and ultimately local scholars and farmers in a carefully wrought partnership that grew geometrically — and deliberately — over many years.  This history sets a precedent for the work that is possible in Africa today, through strong partnerships and African commitment and leadership.

Achieving a Green Revolution for Africa is a multi-layered challenge. At the most fundamental level, it starts with improved crop varieties for larger, more diverse, and more reliable harvests. That requires not only an astute application of science, but the development of new generations of trained African agricultural scientists.

A second element involves better inputs and practices, including the use of fertilizer, improved seeds and other soil and water management techniques such as irrigation and water harvesting. Part of this challenge is the development of a more robust market for bringing new products to farmers in a manner— likely through village level “agro-dealers” and improved public extension systems—that educates the farmers on how to put the innovations to use. This will require cooperation with existing agricultural institutions, developing market-led models for extension services, as well as other organizations in order to increase the capacity of small holders to more effectively manage their crop and livestock systems using best practice knowledge.

Next up the chain is the development of stronger off-farm systems and markets, from storage to transportation to processing and final sale. Though this is a more complex and wider-ranging task than input development and distribution (and more demanding than anything directly pursued in the first Green Revolution which concentrated chiefly on wheat and rice), it represents perhaps the greatest opportunity for a fundamental transformation in Africa’s agricultural economy and the future livelihoods of poor farmers. Success in output markets is critical to the success of input markets because they are interdependent and self reinforcing. Supportive national policy reforms can also play an important role in enabling agricultural economic growth.

The dynamic nature of African environments requires a focus on creating sustainable systems that can support growth.  Population growth, urbanization, income growth, increasing consumption of meat, price depression in commodity markets, and global competition demands constant growth in agricultural production of at least 5% per year.  Building robust seed systems, training future breeders, and agronomists, and reducing risk in agricultural markets is essential for sustainable growth.  At the same time, competition for water and land resources and man-made threats to bio-diversity and ecosystem services drives agriculture to increasingly produce more with available inputs on less land. As a result, African governments and donors will need to prioritize investment in agriculture and build capacity within agricultural systems so that they can continuously deliver improvements that address these issues over the long term.

The Alliance will require a broad range of investments that will enable Africans themselves to lead the transformation that is required. These investments will need to be aimed at improving input markets (seeds, fertilizer, etc), building output markets and effective demand, and building capacity of individual scientists, farmers, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and a range of African institutions.

Although there appears to be broad agreement around key elements in this vision of an African Green Revolution, there remains significant uncertainty and disagreements about what specific types of interventions are needed and how they will be implemented. It is in this context that AGRA is choosing to focus on transforming Africa’s seed systems as an initial major investment.  This is specifically a supply side intervention and it must be understood within our broader strategy that will ensure complementary investments in demand side or output market interventions.  Without an equivalent strategy to help link farmers to markets and improve their access to complementary inputs such as fertilizer, we know these supply interventions will have limited long-term impact on reducing poverty and hunger.

Structure and Projects

Two legal entities are being created to achieve the vision of a Green Revolution for Africa: 

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA): A high profile organization with public charity status committed to reducing hunger and poverty in Africa through agricultural development targeted to resource-poor farmers.  AGRA will:

• Conduct high level policy formation, advocacy and communications

• Provide access to high level African and global leaders and to donors

• Mobilize resources and political commitments for itself and complementary activities

Programs for a Green Revolution in Africa (ProGRA): A supporting organization to AGRA that is capable of receiving substantial funding from RF, BMGF and others for redistribution to improve the productivity and profitability of small-scale farming in Africa.  ProGRA will:

• Mobilize resources in collaboration with AGRA

• Hold, invest and manage funds

• In collaboration with governments and donors, direct the allocation of resources among initiatives and sub-initiatives as progress is made and new opportunities and needs emerge

• Provide fiduciary oversight to ensure appropriate use of funds in the initiatives and sub-initiatives

• Provide design, quality control and management for monitoring and evaluation of initiatives and sub-initiatives for learning and strategy refinement

• Report to AGRA and to donors

The first major initiative of ProGRA will be a Program for Africa’s Seed System (PASS) that operates in 20 African countries. 

PASS includes the following five projects which have a total cost of $150 million over five years, of which the Rockefeller contribution will be $50 million and the BMGF contribution $100 million.

1. The Fund for the Improvement and Adoption of African Crops (FIAAC) funds crop breeding in Africa to improve African crop varieties and promote their distribution and adoption by small holder farmers.  This grant should result in the development of 200 new improved crop varieties in five years.  Total project cost:  $43 million, of which Rockefeller contribution will be $14.3 million.

2. Education for African Crop Improvement provides training for the new generation of crop breeders and agricultural scientists upon which the seed system depends for growth and productivity.  This grant should result in an additional 170 M.Sc. and 50 Ph.D. plant scientists trained and productively employed in African agricultural development.  Total project cost: $20 million, of which Rockefeller contribution will be $6.7 million.

3. The Seed Production for Africa Initiative will ensure that improved crop varieties are produced and distributed through private and public channels (including seed companies, public community seed systems and public extension) so that farmers can adopt these varieties.  In five years, this grant should result in improved seed varieties distributed through SEPA projects planted on 1.3 million hectares with retail value of $58 million, an increase of 13% in the supply of improved seed.  Total project cost: $24 million, of which Rockefeller contribution will be $8 million.

4. The Agro-Dealer Development Program provides training, capital and credit to establish small agro-dealers who are a primary conduit of seeds, fertilizers, chemicals and knowledge to smallholder farmers to increase their productivity and incomes.  In five years, this grant should result in 10,000 highly functioning agro-dealers in order to support a significant increase in the adoption of improved crop varieties.  Total project cost: $37 million, of which Rockefeller contribution will be $12.3 million.

5. PASS General Operating and Monitoring and Evaluation.  This division will oversee sub-granting and implementation of all PASS activities, carry out advocacy and financial management activities, and conduct monitoring and evaluation of PASS projects.  Total project cost: $26 million (including $15 million for monitoring and evaluation).  Rockefeller contribution will be $8.7 million, as well as significant in-kind contributions, to be determined as implementation plans are completed this Fall.

Certain projects, including the research and development grant (FIAAC), are more ready for immediate implementation than others. We plan to conduct an extensive business planning process that will be completed in early December, at which time all five projects will have more detailed plans to guide project implementation. 

In order for this effort to fully succeed, other initiatives will be required to improve African agriculture.  As noted above, these may include efforts to improve the use of complementary inputs such as fertilizer and irrigation, to link farmers to improved output markets, and to enhance agricultural education and training.  These future initiatives will be critical to the long term success of any effort aimed at using agricultural development to move a large proportion of Africans out of poverty and hunger. 

We believe PASS can and should continue beyond the initial five-year time horizon, and we will pursue a sustainability plan that seeks to attract other public and private funding to help it do so.  We hope that other funding will come in if we are able to demonstrate success in the first five years, and we are learning more about how to engage others in this effort.

We are carefully determining what PASS will mean in terms of moving people out of hunger and poverty in Africa.  Our initial estimate is that over ten years, PASS should produce 400 improved crop varieties resulting in a 50 percent increase in the land area planted with improved varieties across 20 African countries.  We have also initially estimated that this level of performance will contribute to eliminating hunger for 30-40 million people and sustainably move 15-20 million people out of poverty.