Food Sovereignty: moving from theory to practice
Part 3. Back in Canada: Food sovereignty and Green Revolutions
For Tiniguena, food sovereignty is best expressed by having control over your own food. This means conserving biodiversity and the local knowledge associated to the production of these foods. According to Augusta, "The more proud and aware small farmers are about the food they grow, the less chance there is they will be swayed to abandon their seeds by salesmen selling foreign seeds or chemical fertilizers." This same analysis was expressed in a myriad of ways during Nyéléni. The Green Revolution in Asia had such far-reaching and profound effects in large part because so many farmers willingly embarked on the experiment swayed by promises of better yields. Half a century later, its legacy is hotly contested.
As the evidence continues to mount against the success of the first Green Revolution, a new Green Revolution is being launched - but this time aimed at Africa. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is a twenty-year endeavour jointly launched by The Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; it aims to spur agricultural development in Africa through the introduction of improved crop varieties and technical know-how. To learn more about AGRA, Inter Pares helped to convene a policy dialogue in Ottawa where AGRA program staff and African civil society leaders could talk openly.
In the meeting, AGRA's senior program officer asked these four questions: If we are going to increase spending in science and technology, where do we invest it? How do we get this knowledge to farmers? How do we support policy change for more international trade? How do we improve governance in Africa to fight the corruption?
Participants found his questions revealing of the paradigm driving AGRA. The assumption is that hunger in the South, and in Africa in particular, is due to the lack of skills and know-how among farmers, to inadequate technology, lack of international trade and poor government services. From this perspective, Africa is a continent of scarcity and the problem lies within, while the solutions to Africa's food crisis are to be found outside: in laboratories, or through the introduction of packages of agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers and pesticides). The first Green Revolution, launched in Asia half a century ago, was founded on the same logic.
What I heard time and time again at Nyéléni, and what I saw with my own eyes in farmers' fields in Guinea-Bissau, does not fit with this story. Africa is exceedingly rich in agro-biodiversity, and farmers, who are crucial in maintaining this diversity, have a wealth of knowledge. According to farmer associations in Africa, the reasons for hunger in Africa are to be found to a large degree outside of Africa: unfair trade rules, dumping of cheap crops on local markets, even climate change. The solutions, on the other hand, are to be found within Africa: by favouring local and regional trade, by working with farmers in breeding varieties adapted to local conditions that do not need chemical additives, and by developing policies that favour small farmers and local consumption rather than large monocultures for export.
A strong and central message brought forward at Nyéléni was that farmers are organized, and have their own proposals for the future of agriculture that need to be listened to by governments and aid agencies. Taking the lead from farmers in developing agricultural policy would be a revolution indeed.
To find out more
- Nyéléni Declaration
http://www.nyeleni.org/?lang=en - AGRA http://www.agra-alliance.org
- CBC Radio's The Current on Africa's new Green Revolution (audio file) http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200703/20070327.html
To get involved
- Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) http://www.cban.ca
- Food Secure Canada http://www.foodsecurecanada.org
- National Farmers Union http://www.nfu.ca
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