How will an African Green Revolution differ from the 20th Century Green Revolutions in Asia and Latin America?
Conditions in Africa today are significantly different from those that prevailed in Asia and Latin America, making simple transfers of those experiences impossible. These differences start with the exceptional complexity of African farming systems, based on the continent’s wide range of agro-ecologies, climates and cultures. Moreover, African soils are poorer and more degraded than were Asia’s, requiring more complex systems of natural resources management to restore and sustain them. While the Asian and Latin American Green Revolutions relied on widespread adoption of standard technology packages of irrigation, fertilizer, and improved rice, wheat or corn spread over millions of hectares, an African Green Revolution needs to conserve and promote the diversity of African crops, cropping systems and livestock. Africa’s Green Revolution will be based primarily on rain-fed agriculture, and programmatically geared toward the empowerment of smallholder farmers. Furthermore, more so than in
