Browsing: Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA)

AfDB issue $27.9 million grant to fund Ghana's Savannah Agriculture Value Chain Development Project which has a lot of similarities to AGRA critics argue. Photo/AfDBto fund Ghana's Savannah Agriculture Value Chain Development Project which has a lot of similarities to AGRA. Photo/AfDB

Ghana: From AGRA to Savannah Agriculture Value Chain Development Project

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The reason farmers are forced to buy seeds is that projects like AGRA take away traditional organic seeds by giving subsidized GMO seeds, which cannot be replanted hence after harvest, the farmers must buy new batches of seeds to replant the next season.

In effect, forcing the farmers to rely on new purchases of seeds every year means the peasants are unwittingly caught in a cycle of dependency and poverty, for that matter.

Worse still, projects like AGRA that claims to introduce ‘modern agriculture technologies’ focus on using chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides and also push for monoculture, which locks the farmers in the dependency cycle; they have to buy more fertilizers to keep their lands productive, and they have to buy the same pesticides because of monoculture.

It is for such reasons that last year, AFSA released an open letter with over 200 signatories alleging that AGRA did not increase the productivity or incomes of farmers nor did it reduce food insecurity.

With increased food insecurity in Africa, AGRA critics want Bill Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, USAID and others to stop funding AGRA.

Critics: AGRA billions funding food insecurity in Africa

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Worse still, the institute points to a much deeper conspiracy to force African farmers to buy agro-inputs from large corporations. In its report, the Oakland Institute says AGRA ‘imposes a regime in which farmers lose power over their own seeds and are forced to buy them back from large corporations year after year.’

“This system may also contribute to the marginalization of women.9 million smallholder farmer households, who are witnessing increased food security through AGRA’s direct interventions,” reads the report in part.

Then there is the matter overarching matter of climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that the use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser will increase nitrous oxide emissions, which increase the atmospheric temperature significantly.