Africa is not a monoculture, we reject the plan to make it one

Efforts to impose industrial agriculture on African countries threaten the sustainability of African food production.

Organisers of this year’s African Green Revolution Forum claim the annual gathering that ended on September 10 provided a “single coordinated African voice” in advance of the upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit. That voice sings the praises of capital-intensive technological innovation, with the host Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) playing conductor and trying to keep donors, governments, companies and UN agencies singing the same tune.

A very different choir, featuring a diverse range of voices, sang a very different song outside the virtual halls of the Forum. The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), representing some 200 million small-scale food producers in its continent-wide network, directly challenged AGRA’s claim to represent Africa.

Millions of African farmers, fisherfolk, Indigenous peoples, pastoralists, women’s networks, youth networks, consumer organisations, faith-based institutions, and other civil society organisations, gathered under the leadership of AFSA, sent a letter to AGRA donors on September 7 signed by 160 international organisations demanding an end to funding for failing Green Revolution projects.