Focus on... A green revolution for Africa

Forty years after the Asian Green Revolution , the spotlight has now turned on African agriculture. Increasing attention is being paid to the need for greater investment in African agriculture and key organisations are pushing for a New Green Revolution in Africa.<br /><br />In this edition of New Agriculturist, a range of authors review a different approaches with a potential for raising agricultural productivity in Africa. The articles highlight that achieving an African green revolution will be harder and more complex than the green revolution in Asia and a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. They stress that technology alone will also not provide the answers, and present a range of case studies of how innovative approaches can help to increase agricultural production.<br /><br />The edition contains the following articles:<br /> <strong>Going against the grain: Malawi's fertiliser subsidy: </strong>Two years of good weather, combined with a government subsidy scheme on maize seed and fertiliser, have produced record harvests in Malawi. However, with the rising cost of fertiliser, does it still represent Malawi's best solution to food insecurity?<br /> <strong>Bahati Tweve: The honest 'middleman' brokering deals: </strong>The First Mile Project in rural Tanzania has promoted the use of 'spies', mobile phones and the internet to help farmers gain better access to markets.<br /> <strong>Reaping what you sow: developing a seed industry in Africa: </strong>A programme that provides Business Development services to seed companies in East and Southern Africa is helping to transform Africa's growing seed industry.<br /> <strong>Found in translation: farm radio goes local: </strong>A&nbsp;pioneeering agricultural radio programme in Kenya is providing farmers with regular and reliable sources of local language information on the key activities in fruit farming, dairying, fishing and maize production.<br /> <strong>No till and raised beds boost yields: </strong>On Lesotho's highly eroded plateau, no-tillage conservation agriculture techniques are raising farm productivity. <br /> <strong>Gender revolution: a prerequisite for change: </strong>Women produce 80 per cent of the food in Africa yet own only one per cent of the land. According to Kofi Annan, "a green revolution in Africa will happen only if there is also a gender revolution".<br /> <strong>Sorghum beer: a sustaining brew: </strong>In Sierra Leone, a public-private partnership - which started as a social experiment - has resulted in a sustainable business buying sorghum from local farmers to use in brewing beer.<br />