Africa’s Green Revolution

This volume examines the dominant neoliberal agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa. The text reviews the history of African agricultural and food security policy in the post-colonial period, across a range of geographical contexts, in order to contextualise the productionist approach embedded in the much heralded New Green Revolution for Africa. This strategy, supported by a range of international agencies, promotes the use of hybrid seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides to boost crop production. This approach is underpinned by a new and unprecedented level of public-private partnerships as donors actively work to promote the private sector and build links between African farmers, input suppliers, agro-dealers, agro-processors, and retailers. On the consumer end, increased supermarket penetration into poorer neighbourhoods is proffered as a solution to urban food insecurity. The chapters in this volume complicate understandings of this new approach and raise serious questions about its effectiveness as a strategy for increasing food production and alleviating poverty across the continent.

1. Introduction: Interrogating the technocratic (neoliberal) agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa 2. The social realities of technology transfer: smallholder farmers' encounter with a new rice variety 3. A political ecology of high-input agriculture in northern Ghana 4. Implications of supermarket expansion on urban food security in Cape Town, South Africa 5. Should I stay or should I go? Incorporating a commitment to fieldwork throughout an academic career 6. Food and nutrition assistance to HIV-infected and affected populations in Ghana: a situational analysis and stakeholder views 7. A field assessment of land use systems and soil properties at varied landscape positions in a fragile ecosystem of Mount Elgon, Uganda 8. Smallholder Perspectives on Soil Fertility Management and Markets in the African Green Revolution