The
African Centre for Biodiversity
www.acbio.org.za
PO Box 29170, Melville 2109 South Africa
Tel: +27 (0)11 486 1156
Dear
friends and colleagues
It is our pleasure to share with you our recent report titled ‘A Green
Revolution dead-end in Malawi: Case studies on AGRA’s pigeon pea project
and Malawi Agro-dealer Strengthening Programme (MASP)’, which is a
continuation of the ACB’s work in Malawi. The report found that AGRA’s
sponsored pigeon pea project was a dismal failure and the agrodealer
project had some major and fundamental weaknesses.
In regard to the pigeon pea project managed by NASFAM, the report
found that farmers were merely passive recipients of pigeon pea varieties
introduced into areas where pigeon pea was not historically grown
or consumed. This meant there was no local market or consumption,
and success of the project relied on securing output markets. NASFAM
purchased outputs for the duration of the project. However, this was
dependent on the continuation of funding which disappeared at the
end of the project. The project’s lifespan of three years was insufficient
time for farmers to see the full soil fertility benefits of grain-legume
rotations. The project did not involve farmers in seed production,
and they received seed from outside. As a result of these issues,
the extent of pigeon pea use dropped off sharply once funding dried
up.
The project indicates a number of weaknesses with AGRA’s Green Revolution
and top down approach. First, there was no attempt to investigate
legume varieties with a history of local use. There was also no participatory
engagement with farmers to revive or increase use of those legumes
as part of the project. Rather, the top-down project was focussed
primarily on trying to increase the uptake of improved crops and varieties
already developed in the formal system. Second, an opportunity was
lost to capitalise on the benefits of grain-legume integration on
soil fertility because the project was too short lived for farmers
to see these benefits fully, and because grain-legume integration
was introduced in isolation from other agro-ecological soil fertility
techniques. Although it was introduced under the umbrella of Conservation
Agriculture (CA), there was no support for the other components of
CA (minimum till, permanent ground cover) or wider agro-ecological
production techniques such as use of compost and manure. Finally,
the project was dependent on profitable output markets but in reality
these did not exist without ongoing subsidy.
The MASP agro-dealer project is a longer term approach adopted by
AGRA and more generally by African governments who have embraced modernisation
and the Green Revolution approach as the path forward. Agro-dealers
are presented as an alternative to public sector extension which has
been denuded in the face of structural adjustment and neoliberal policies
over the past 25-30 years. Instead of using available resources to
rebuild public sector extension, the agro-dealer approach looks for
ways to make the provision of inputs profitable so that private enterprises
will occupy this space. Not only are the inputs themselves subsidised
through the farm input subsidy programmes (FISPs), but the mechanism
for delivery itself is opened to the private sector. However, this
has also failed. First, agro-dealers only do demo plots for as long
as these activities are subsidised through programmes like the MASP
or by seed corporations who are seeking markets for their products.
The claim is that ag ro-dealers dispense extension advice. But this
advice is restricted to informing farmers of the benefits of proprietary
Green Revolution technologies owned by the large corporations. It
is not true advice based on a participatory assessment of context-specific
farming conditions and then identification of the most appropriate
technologies for those conditions. Rather it is technology driven,
with technical solutions predetermined and then brought to farmers
who must adapt their practices to fit these externally introduced
technologies. The agro-dealers are conduits for corporate-owned Green
Revolution technologies. Even in these terms, small agro-dealers supported
by the programme have struggled to maintain themselves after the end
of the subsidised programme. They have to compete against corporate
outlets, confront challenges with seasonality of demand, difficulties
in securing supplies and low demand when the products they are selling
are not subsidised, either through FISP or pro grammes such as MASP.
The agro-dealer model is a poor replacement for public sector extension
despite the huge amount of resources being pumped into establishing
and maintaining agro-dealers. Development aid, philanthropic and public
sector resources could be better used to rebuild public sector extension,
in interaction with extension based in farmer associations.
Please
read the report.
Kind regards
ACB team
