The Challenge
Global production of major cereals set a world record in 2008, yet 300 million Africans lack sufficient food each day.
Increasing agricultural productivity is critical for both human welfare and economic growth in African countries. About 70% of Sub-Saharan Africans depend on agriculture for their food and their livelihoods, primarily by raising staple food crops and a few livestock on small farms.
Many farmers barely produce enough food to feed their families. They are unable to generate a surplus and therefore have no income to buy the inputs that can enhance their crop yields—even though it would take only modest investments and small improvements in farming practices to triple or even quadruple what they now produce.
Our Strategy
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Strengthening Food Security initiative includes AGRA, which was launched in 2006 in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is an African-based and African-led organization charged with sustainably increasing the productivity and profitability of small-scale farms throughout Africa.
The Rockefeller Foundation supports AGRA across four interrelated areas of activity:
- Improving access to more resilient seeds that produce higher and more stable yields
- Promoting soil health and productivity
- Building more efficient local, national and regional, agriculture markets
- Promoting improved policies and building partnerships to develop the technological and institutional changes needed to achieve a Green Revolution
Key Outcomes
This initiative helps make food supplies secure by working with smallholder farmers to achieve rapid and sustainable agricultural growth with their staple crops. We seek to achieve four outcomes:
- Science, knowledge and technology are disseminated and used by African small-scale farmers to rapidly increase agricultural productivity in ways that are sustainable and environmentally friendly.
- Small-scale farmers achieve Increased productivity, income and profit in 10 or more African countries by giving them greater access to markets for their staple crops.
- Policies, infrastructure and financial incentive mechanisms are in place regionally and nationally to provide a supportive and sustainable environment for agricultural transformations. Particular attention is paid to giving women farmers access to technologies, knowledge and other resources.
- Alliances and platforms are developed collaboratively with bilateral and multilateral partners, national governments, research organizations, farmers’ organizations and others to address the need for greater agricultural productivity, resource mobilization, and human resources to achieve food security.
Full Summary: Strengthening Food Security: AGRA (PDF)
