Re-imagining african agricultural development: potential pathways for the

Africa is at a critical inflection point for its food systems. Will African policymakers continue on the path of developing energy-intensive agriculture that employs fewer people, undermines the natural resource base, is dependent on export markets, and has little impact on national nutritional security? While the vision of an increasingly urban Africa is appealing, and industrialization of agriculture is seen as the way to get there, policymakers must ask hard questions about the modernist agenda they have been pursuing since independence. Will these policies lead to full employment, food security, and resilience in the face of global climatic and economic disruption? Government statistics suggest a resounding no. African policymakers must chart a radically different path to future prosperity and well-being. This seminar explores new ideas on how to reimagine African agricultural development paradigms and operationalize an alternative pathway, with a particular focus on agroecology and ideas circulating in the Francophone African sphere. While all panelists recognize the need for change, the best way forward is contested and the focus of this seminar.

Problem setting

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Underdevelopment in the South is not new. The colonial powers actively underdeveloped Africa by introducing cash crops for European markets, often using head taxes to create a need for commercial agriculture to make money. This has undermined local food production, reduced the storage of surplus grain, degraded soils, and reinforced the self-exploitation of household labor. Many African governments adopted a policy of food self-sufficiency in the decades following independence, seeking to produce as much food as possible within their borders using the technologies of the first green revolution, including improved seeds, pesticides and inorganic fertilizers. At the same time, many new African governments sought to stimulate industrialization through import substitution policies, with agribusinesses featuring prominently among the enterprises developed at that time. With the debt crisis of the late 1970s, the international financial institutions launched an aggressive form of neoliberal economic reform. This led to drastic cuts in government functions, a reduction in subsidies and tariffs, a focus on trade and exports, and an increased concentration on commodities in which African countries were deemed to have a comparative advantage. While commodity production increased during this period, food crop production often declined. This was not seen as a problem because, according to the new neoliberal paradigm of food security, countries could focus on a few exports and trade for food.

The neoliberal food security paradigm lasted 25 years until it collapsed in the mid-2000s when food prices began to rise, jumping some 50 percent in 2007-2008 with rising energy prices and financial speculation. The global food crisis triggered food protests around the world. Highly dependent on food imports, urban populations in Africa have been particularly affected. This crisis has drawn the attention of world leaders and African policymakers, launching a neoproductionist shift in African agricultural development, often referred to as the « New Green Revolution for Africa » (GR4A). For the first time in nearly three decades, agriculture was back on the agenda. While similar to the first green revolution in many ways, the GR4A placed greater emphasis on involving the private sector and connecting small farmers to global markets. With a nod to gender and nutrition, the focus was on increasing yields through monetization of agriculture and the use of inputs. The COVID-19 pandemic, associated blockages and trade disruptions further revealed the inadequacies of African agricultural development and food security strategies. Hunger and malnutrition rates are rising in many parts of the African continent as farmers lose their export markets, food prices rise with the decline in the value of foreign exchange, and the urban poor struggle to buy food in the face of income losses. Ironically, subsistence farmers, the least affected by formal development programs, have often fared better in recent months.

Africa is at a critical inflection point. Will African policymakers continue down the path of developing energy-intensive agriculture that employs fewer people, undermines the natural resource base, is dependent on export markets, and has little impact on national nutritional security? While the vision of an increasingly urban Africa is appealing, and industrialization of agriculture is seen as the way to get there, policymakers must ask hard questions about the modernist agenda they have been pursuing since independence. Will these policies lead to full employment, food security, and resilience in the face of global climatic and economic disruption? Government statistics suggest a resounding no! African policymakers must chart a radically different path to future prosperity and well-being. This seminar explores new ideas on how to reimagine African agricultural development paradigms and operationalize an alternative pathway, with a particular focus on agroecology and ideas circulating in the Francophone African sphere. While all panelists recognize the need for change, the best way forward is contested and is the focus of this seminar.

Programme and speakers

Moderation:Jean-Michel Sourisseau,Deputy Director, JRU ‘Actors, Ressources and Territories in Development’ (ART-Dev) / French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), France

15:00-15:05 Welcome address

Patrick Caron,Director, Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions (MAK’IT), France

15:05-15:20  Introduction and framework presentation,

William Moseley,Professor of Geography, Macalester College, Saint Paul, USA & MAK’IT Fellow (JRU ‘ART-Dev’)

15:20-16:20Contributions from invited panellists

 Philippe Baret,Full professor, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

Mamadou Goita,Executive Director, Institute for Research and Promotion of Development Alternatives (IRPAD), Mali

Evelyne Compaore,Sociologist and Specialist in agricultural innovation systems, Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA) and National Centre for Scientific and Technological Research (CNRST), Burkina Faso

Mariam Sow,Director, ENDA-Pronat, Senegal

Denis Gautier,Geographer and Regional Director for the Mediterranean, CIRAD, France

16:20 – 17:20  Q&As and general discussion

17:20 – 17:30      Concluding remarks

Denis Pesche,Director, JRU ‘ART-Dev’ / CIRAD, France