OPINION: African farmers have homegrown solutions to hunger
Farmers cultivate maize on a farm in Kakamega, western Kenya. Climate change is already putting huge stress on Africa’s food production systems. PHOTO | ISAAC WALE
Two months ago in Ghana, Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, congratulated an illustrious group of corporate and government leaders for “leapfrogging into the future” in their efforts to “modernise” African agriculture with high-yield commercial seeds, fertilisers, and other technologies.
Unfortunately, such policies are leapfrogging right over Africa’s small-scale farmers. We have seen no such progress on the ground in Africa. Not only are these policies failing to address chronic rural poverty and hunger, they are doing little to improve nutrition, health, and climate resilience.
