The Case for Farmers
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Earlier this year, the Salzburg Global Seminar brought together stakeholders from around the world for a conference entitled Toward a Green Revolution in Africa. The so-called Green Revolution, promoted by many, including Bill Gates’s AGRA foundation, wants to bring western technical solutions to solve the African food crisis. The original Green Revolution in Asia, in the 1960s and ‘70s, increased productivity and yields in some crops, but caused tremendous damage to biodiversity and soil fertility.
Malian farm movement leader, Mamadou Goïta, was one of the few at the conference to express concerns about the potential impact of the commercial approach on African farms. Goïta was critical of the fact that African families and farmers, who have solutions and on-the-ground experience, are being left out of this process.
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The first Green Revolution brought a flood of experts, seeds, and inputs from outside, says Goïta. Farmers lost control of their seeds and the ability to make their own choices about what they grow. He questions the need to import solutions, saying, “There have been many solutions proposed for Africans, but we have a richness and diversity of solutions ourselves.” Farmer-led programs are about more than just increasing yields. They are about raising productivity without losing biodiversity – the basis of our planet’s food supply.
Goïta argues that this latest Green Revolution means three things: the intensive use of water, fertilizers, and hybrid seeds. He says, “I know that if you want to do it in [this] technical way in Africa, it won’t work.” Goïta says it may be called a Green Revolution in discussions about the improvement of food systems for Africa but “it’s up to farmers…to determine the key ways for it to work.”
Watch the full interview here.
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was founded by
Dr Lotta Hitschmanova in 1945. Our award-winning Seeds of Survival program promotes vibrant family farms, strong rural communities, and healthy ecosystems around the world.
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