Q: What is the foundation's approach to agricultural development?
A: Our Agricultural Development initiative is working with a wide range of partners to provide millions of farmers in the developing world with tools and opportunities to boost productivity and income and build better lives for themselves and their families. We focus on small farmers—most of whom are women—and are committed to listening so that our work helps meet their needs. We’re also focused on sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the need is greatest.
We recognize it is of little use if a farmer, through access to better seeds or more fertile soil or irrigation, boosts production but doesn’t have a market to sell the surplus. That’s why our approach focuses on the entire agricultural value chain—from seeds and soil to farm management and market access. We also support data collection, research, and policy analysis that can help improve agricultural development. We believe this is the only way to get long-term, sustainable results.
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Q: How does improving agriculture help create opportunities and reduce poverty?
A: Agricultural productivity directly impacts the income and livelihood of the world's poorest people: Three-quarters of all people who survive on less than $1 a day live in rural areas, and most rely on agriculture for food and income.
Apart from a few states and small, oil-rich countries, no country has managed a rapid rise from poverty without increasing agricultural productivity. In the poorest countries, agriculture employs a majority of the people.
Reducing hunger and poverty on a large scale begins with these small farmers. Farmers who can grow enough to feed their families, have a surplus, and get that surplus to market will have the chance to increase their incomes and improve their quality of life.
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Q: What does success look like?
A: Together with partners, we expect to be a catalyst that helps hundreds of millions of people overcome hunger and poverty within the next few decades. If these efforts are successful, small farmers will have access to quality seeds for nutritious, high-value crops; effective and affordable irrigation; and the appropriate fertilizers and other inputs to make their soil healthy. They'll also have access to information that helps them manage their land and labor to full potential and best market their surplus crops. Women will be empowered to participate more fully in—and realize the benefits of—advances in agricultural development.
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Q: What is AGRA?
A: The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is an Africa-based and African-led effort to develop a thriving agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa. AGRA was formed, with initial support from the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations, in response to calls from African leaders to revitalize agriculture on the continent. It is chaired by Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general, and headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
AGRA is bringing together partners from government, business, and civil society to focus on a range of issues, increasing the availability of quality, locally relevant seeds; improving the health of Africa’s depleted soils; and expanding access for small farmers to credit and markets. AGRA is focused on small farmers and economic and environmental sustainability.
Visit the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa web site.
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Q: What did you learn from the Green Revolution?
A: We’ve learned a lot from the original Green Revolution, and in the decades since it occurred.
First, we’ve learned that progress on a large scale is possible: The original Green Revolution doubled the amount of food produced, saved hundreds of millions of lives from famine, and laid the groundwork for broader development in many countries. But we’ve also learned several lessons that we believe will enable an African Green Revolution to deliver the benefits of the original Green Revolution, without the adverse side effects.
During the original Green Revolution, overuse of fertilizer led to unanticipated environmental consequences. Today, we consider potential environmental impacts in all of our grantmaking, and are committed to a sustainable model of agriculture that takes into account the needs of both farmers and the environment. So while Africa’s severely depleted soils require fertilizer, we promote judicious and efficient uses of fertilizer, and more intensive use of organic matter. We also invest in efforts to improve soil and water conservation techniques.
Another unanticipated consequence of the original Green Revolution was increased inequity in some areas. Our work is focused on providing small farmers living on less than a dollar a day—most of whom are women—with tools and opportunities to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. We and our grantees work to involve small farmers in the design and evaluation of our projects, to ensure that our work meets their needs and addresses the realities they face in their local areas.
Another difference is that the original Green Revolution focused primarily on raising the yields of two staple crops: rice and wheat. Africa’s diverse agroecological zones and varied conditions will require a much greater range of approaches, from boosting productivity in a wider range of crops to developing crops that are resistant to drought, disease, and pests. We are working to carefully understand the different needs of small farmers throughout the continent and are designing our efforts to respond to their specific circumstances.
This new Green Revolution is broad based and includes significant African leadership on a number of levels. We are working with a wide range of partners to strengthen the entire agricultural value chain—from seeds and soil to farm management and market access—so that progress is sustainable over the long-term. We are also working to involve and empower women—who are integral to success in agriculture—at every level of our work.
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Q: How does biotechnology fit into the foundation's strategy?
A: Quality seeds are key to a good harvest. However, many existing crop varieties do not grow well in the often harsh environments of the developing world, where drought can be common, a variety of diseases and pests plague crops, and many crops are grown on marginal land and offer little nutritional value.
Our work in seeds includes conventional breeding, marker-assisted breeding, and transgenic approaches to improve crops. We also support multiple channels to offer improved seeds to farmers so they can choose what is best for them.
Boosting agricultural productivity is a complex challenge with no single, simple solution. We focus on the entire agricultural value chain, from seeds and soil, to farm management, to market access, to policy. Our goal is to help small farmers gain access to the best and most appropriate tools to meet their needs.
Most of our science and technology grants use conventional breeding. We include biotechnology when we believe there is potential to help farmers confront drought, flooding, disease, or pests faster or more effectively than conventional breeding alone. The foundation also makes a number of grants, through its Global Health Program, to support biofortification—nutritionally enhanced crops that can help prevent disease and stunting.
We believe that crops improved through biotechnology must be appropriately tested, and have made several grants to strengthen the capacity of regulators, especially in Africa, so countries can make their own decisions based on the best available science and knowledge about crop performance and potential health and environmental impacts. We respect the right of countries and farmers to make their own decisions about biotechnology. All our grants meet established standards of safety and effectiveness and our grantees are required to work within the regulations and laws of the countries where they operate.
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Q: Do you pay attention to the environmental impact of your agricultural grantmaking?
A: Yes—we consider potential environmental impacts in all of our grantmaking. Our approach is to support both poor farmers and the environment.
Population growth and poor soil health in Africa have forced farmers to clear and cultivate more marginal lands, often leading to erosion, deforestation, and sometimes desertification. In Asia, the misuse of fertilizers and irrigation has caused large areas of land to be lost to acidification and salinization.
We understand these are not sustainable ways to produce food or preserve the environment. In revitalizing small-scale farm production we are funding approaches that support small farmers and are ecologically sound.
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Q: Does the foundation promote the use of fertilizers?
A: Healthy soil is critical to farm productivity, and the judicious use of organic and mineral fertilizers can help small farmers prosper while preserving their land.
We support AGRA’s Soil Health Program, which focuses on integrated soil fertility management as well as the use of fertilizers where necessary to provide important plant nutrients missing from the soil and from organic materials available to the farmer. We invest in information and knowledge-sharing to assist small farmers in using the right fertilizers in the right way to nourish their soil. We also invest in efforts to improve soil and water conservation techniques.
We are committed to sustainable agriculture, using farming supplies that farmers can afford and that take environmental needs into account.
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Q: What is the foundation doing about climate change?
A: The foundation believes that climate change is a major issue facing all of us, particularly poor people in developing countries, and we applaud the work that many are doing to help find solutions in this area. While the foundation does not fund efforts specifically aimed at reducing carbon emissions, many of our Agricultural Development grants directly address problems that climate change creates or exacerbates. For example, we have made several grants to help small farmers who live on less than $1 per day adapt to increased drought and flooding through the development of drought and flood resistant crops, improved irrigation efficiency, and other means.
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Q: Why is the foundation focusing on gender?
A: In developing countries, women do up to 80 percent of the work on farms. Yet in most areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, women are afforded less status than men, have less access to resources, and have greater responsibilities given their dual roles as mothers and farmers in rural households.
We believe that agricultural development programs must address gender in order to most effectively reduce hunger and poverty. Through the work of our grantees, we expect to see a visible improvement in the general welfare of households—women, children, and families—demonstrated by measured improvements in health and income. To ensure this occurs, we’ve developed a gender impact strategy for our work in Agricultural Development.
As part of this strategy, we have created a gender checklist to ensure that we and our partners are considering the optimal role of women in our projects from the outset. We’ve also adopted proposal templates to help grantees and program officers ensure that each grant has specific and sufficient measures in place to effectively address gender. And we have committed to offering tools and resources to help support grantees’ and partners’ efforts.
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Q: Why is the foundation investing in cash crops?
A: Cash crops, such as coffee, cotton, and cocoa, represent a critical portion of Africa’s agricultural economy, and improvements in cash crop productivity could help millions of farmers lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.
The foundation is providing access to improved farming supplies, market linkages, and information about improved cropping systems that will help farmers increase their incomes while better protecting the soil and environment. We are also working with private and public sector organizations to ensure that small farmers have access to markets, and receive the training and information they need to manage cash crops, form farmer collectives, and sustain economic growth over the long-term.
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