Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
structure | program update | board & staff
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (the Alliance, or AGRA) was established by The Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006. The Alliance is currently working with African governments, other donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, and African farmers to improve the productivity and incomes of resource-poor farmers in Africa. It builds on and expands Rockefeller Foundation-initiated work in Africa.
The Alliance is or expects to be working in the following areas:- Developing better and more appropriate seeds;
- Fortifying depleted soils with responsible use of soil nutrients and better management practices;
- Improving income opportunities through better access to agricultural input and output markets;
- Improving access to water and water-use efficiency;
- Encouraging government policies that support small-scale farmers;
- Developing local networks of agricultural education; and
- Understanding and sharing the wealth of African farmer knowledge.
Structure
To implement the Alliance, two legal entities were created: AGRA and Programs for a Green Revolution in Africa (ProGRA), which served as a “supporting organization” to AGRA. To achieve efficiencies, the Boards of the two legal entities decided to merge ProGRA into AGRA, thereby creating a single organization. The Alliance now has full responsibility for developing and implementing a comprehensive agricultural development program for Africa. Its headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya, with a branch office for West Africa in Accra, Ghana.
Program Update
Africa’s Seed Systems:
Few farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have access to new, improved varieties of local crops capable of producing abundant harvests in what are often harsh conditions. To address this challenge, the Alliance is mounting an across-the-board effort to improve the availability and variety of seeds that can produce higher and more stable yields. It includes four major sub-programs focused on:
- Enhancing graduate training of crop and seed scientists;
- Applied crop improvement;
- Seed production; and
- Seed dissemination through agro-dealers.
To date, grants have been awarded by the Alliance to nearly 30 organizations in eight African countries. They include a grant to the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and one to the University of Ghana; these grants support the training of the next generation of African crop scientists. A complementary grant will enable Cornell University to provide start-up and back-up support for these training programs. Together these universities will train approximately 120 Ph.D. plant breeders over the next ten years, helping to create the critical mass of talent needed to end Africa’s food crisis.
AGRA Launches PhD Program for Crop Breeding
AGRA Grant to U. Ghana
Africa’s Soil Health:
The program on Africa’s soil health will be the second initiative of the Alliance. It will invest in four areas:
- Improving knowledge, application and adoption of integrated soil fertility management;
- Improving economic access to fertilizers for poor farmers;
- Increasing physical access to fertilizers for poor farmers; and
- Developing policy and incentives for adoption of improved soil fertility management practices.
The soil health program directly complements the seeds program and will be followed by investments in output markets, water, education and agricultural extension programs. All components will be integrated within “National Crop Intensification Zones,” with investments concentrated on those countries that have supportive policies and that make a significant commitment of their own resources. The first grants will be made in late 2007.
Board & Staff
Kofi A. Annan, Chairman
The former Secretary-General of the United Nation will devote one-third of his time to the Alliance. He has already played key roles in expediting the Alliance’s host country agreement in Kenya, negotiating with donors, building partnerships with leading agricultural development agencies, and visiting farmers in the field. He leads a Board of seven, five of whom are leading Africans, including Mamphela Ramphele and Strive Masiyiwa.
Kofi Annan's remarks; June 14,2007
Kofi Annan bio
Dr. Namanga Ngongi, President
Dr. Ngongi, from Cameroon, is a leading global voice for equitable and sustainable development of African agriculture. After positions with the Ministry of Agriculture in Cameroon, he moved to the World Food Program where he had a distinguished 17-year career, leading several programs in Africa and rising to become Deputy Executive Director. He served as the UN Special Representative to the Republic of Congo where he was responsible for creating a political reconciliation/ceasefire and overseeing more than 6,000 peacekeeping troops. Dr. Ngongi obtained a Ph.D. in Crop Science and Nutrition from Cornell University, leading a research team at the Soil Research Institute of Ghana as part of his graduate work. He currently farms in Cameroon, struggling with input and output markets, and is very focused on how to run an agricultural business in Africa.
Kwame Akuffo-Akoto, Chief Operating Officer
From Ghana, Mr. Akuffo-Akoto was previously Director for Management Services at the International Rice Research Institute.
Akin Adesina, Vice President for Policy and Partnership
Dr. Adesina has been seconded by the RF to the Alliance.
Akin Adesina, AGRA VP, Addresses US Congressional Black Caucus; September 28, 2007
Written Testimony
Joe DeVries, Director of the Program on
Africa’s Seed Systems
Mr. DeVries has been seconded by the RF to the Alliance.
Boosting African Food Security;
January 17, 2007; New Vision (Kampala)
Program Officers and Administrative Staff
Six additional program officers, all African, are in place, three in Nairobi and three in Accra. Seven additional program officers are being recruited internationally, including the Director for the Soil Health Program and the Director for the Market Access Program. In addition, most of the administrative staff at the Alliance are former RF staff from the Nairobi office. They have developed policies, procedures and management information systems for the full range of functions required by the Alliance.
top of the page
Links
About the AGRA AllianceAGRA brochure June 2007
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development
Nericas-at-a-Glance
World Development Report: Agriculture for Development
Gates/RF Press release; September 8, 2006
Judith Rodin's remarks September 12, 2006
Background and Useful Terms
Original Green Revolution FAQs
Africa’s Turn:A New Green Revolution for the 21st Century
July 2006
News
A Green Revolution for AfricaOctober 26, 2007; Wall Street Journal Commentary
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Norman Borlaug praises the Word Bank's World Development Report: Agriculture for Development, saying, 'This World Development Report comes 25 years after the last issue that featured agriculture and rural development. What has happened in the interim? The report card is not all good, particularly for Africa.' more
Three Heads Are Better Than One
Rice Today October-December 2007
In the face of steeply rising rice prices, three of the world’s leading international agricultural research institutes plan to combine their activities in Africa and so create a powerful new force focused on boosting African rice production. more
African Cassava Breeders Network Moves to Derail Spreading Epidemic of Devastating Crop Virus
October 18, 2007; AGRA press release
The African Cassava Breeders Network meeting brought together nearly 50 people from eight countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Rwanda...The meeting was jointly convened by AGRA and the Ministry of Agriculture of Tanzania. more
AGRA Takes Certified Seeds to Farmers in War on Hunger
October 2, 2007; All Africa, By Allan Odhiambo
As part of a strategy to radically boost agricultural productivity, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) envisages to have in place a special grassroots based delivery system in which a farmer would walk to a shop or kiosk in his rural back yard and readily access high quality certified seeds. more | complete article
Annan Urges Stronger Links Between Farmers and Researchers
July 17, 2007; SciDevNet
Annan announced that over the next four years the AGRA initiative will focus on developing hardier seeds, improving soil health and use of fertilizers, improving water management, and strengthening agricultural markets. The alliance will put special emphasis on problems specific to small-scale farmers. more; AGRA Breeding position paper
The Rice Man of Africa
May 28, 2007; All Africa Global Media
With his gentle smile and calm demeanor, Monty Jones doesn't look like the proverbial wild-haired scientist. But there is no doubt that the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) breakthrough achieved through years of his painstaking breeding, with national and international scientists, has changed forever the way the world looks at African rice, and African science. moreSeeds of Capacity Building in Africa's Agriculture
May 22, 2007; SciDev.Net
The Gates-Rockefeller Foundation alliance has allocated $150m to improving seeds through conventional breeding to increase their yields and make them suitable for Africa's unpredictable rainfall patterns. This work will decrease farmers' dependence on hybrid maize seeds, which need sufficient rainfall to grow and already do not yield enough maize. more | SciDev.Net article
African Universities Link to Offer 'Regional PhDs'
April 2, 2007; SciDevNet
...only through human resource development will Africa realize its dream of a green revolution. We should always emphasize the importance of training and human resource development in order to realize our goals... --Gary Toenniessen more
Maize Seed Launched to Resist Striga
March 15, 2007; Business Daily Africa (Nairobi)
--Gary Toenniessen | more | original article
Grain Storage Pool Offers Food Security
November 7, 2006; The Standard, Nairobi-Kenya
'The cereal banks phenomenon operates on the principle that during harvest time, farmers have excess supply of cereals but a few months later, they are usually in the throes of starvation because they would have exhausted their stock by selling cheaply to middlemen,' said Mr Patrick Nekesa, the Western Kenya manager of Resource Project Kenya...Rockefeller Foundation provided the seed money for the ‘cereal banking’ project. more; full article
World Food Day: RF President Judith Rodin Speaks at UN
November 18, 2006
'...agricultural development is the key to moving people out of poverty...Yet support for agricultural research and development around the globe has actually decreased over the last two decades – a retreat that is unfathomable, and unconscionable' full transcript; webcast