Beyond Yields: Structural Factors Behind The Green Revolution’s Limited Impact in Africa

The Green Revolution in Africa has been mainly driven by international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Yara Foundation, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Despite the billions of dollars invested the success of the movement in Africa has been limited. This paper critically examines why the Green Revolution model promoted by the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has had limited impact in Africa, arguing that the movement’s reliance on increased crop yields as a solution for poverty and hunger is overly simplistic and overlooks local conditions in Africa that make difficult for the Green Revolution to duplicate the successes of the Green Revolution in Asia and Latin America. It advocates for a paradigm shift toward ecologically sustainable and locally driven agricultural reforms that prioritize smallholder farmers and protects Africa’s food sovereignty. The paper uses historical analysis to critique the adverse ecological, social, and economic consequences of borrowed, externally driven agricultural models that overlook the unique challenges of African farming systems, such as low irrigation potential, dependence on mono-cultures, and inadequate attention to local diets and practices. It highlights the disproportionate benefits that the green revolution in Africa is accruing to medium-scale male farmers, while increasing gendered inequalities in food production and distribution.