20 years of failure, Africa says ‘no’ to Green Revolution – AFSA

As AGRA, formerly known as Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, marks its 20th anniversary with a continent-wide celebration tour, new evidence has allegedly tells a different story that hunger has risen sharply across AGRA’s focus countries since 2006, even as billions of philanthropic dollars poured into the industrial agricultural model.

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)’s General Coordinator, Million Belay and Tufts University researcher, Timothy Wise would present two new reports that show the extent to which Gates-funded model of agriculture devastated the continent., saying food sovereignty movement leaders would ground the findings in their lived realities, as well as showing us what alternatives are already taking root, led by farmers and activists. These, and more, would be discussed during the forthcoming webinar, which takes place on August 24, 2026 at 2pm West Africa Time (WAT), to be moderated by an award-winning author, filmmaker and academic, Raj Patel.

Two new reports by AFSA and an independent researcher at Tufts University point to 20 years of failed Green Revolution by Gates-funded AGRA, and showcase farmers, who are already charting a different path. Key findings of the reports also reveal that the “number of undernourished people across AGRA countries has risen 58% since 2006. This is nearly double the 31% increase found in an earlier 2020 assessment of the same countries, even as AGRA set a goal of cutting hunger in half; and staple crop yield growth has slowed since AGRA’s launch compared to the 12 years before it began, despite fertiliser use more than doubling across the region.

Furthermore, “much of the increase in food production came not from higher yields, but from clearing new farmland – cropland expanded 46% since 2006 – undermining the ‘sustainable intensification’ the model promised to deliver; and Senegal, which was never an AGRA focused country, achieved the very target AGRA set for its own countries: cutting hunger in half over the same period. After billions poured into AGRA-aligned policies, farmers have only grown hungrier and more in debt”, said the National Coordinator of the Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB), Mutinta Nketani, describing the situation in Zambia, saying “We cannot continue this way”.

“The agroecological alternative isn’t theoretical. Farmers are already building the agroecological alternative: restoring soils, protecting their seeds, diversifying their farms and reducing dependence on expensive external inputs”, says the General Coordinator of AFSA, Million Belay. “It’s time to fund what works”, it added. Wise’s assessment, “Requiem for Africa’s Green Revolution”, was published on August 17, 2026 while AFSA’s report, “The Green Revolution Has Failed Africa: Twenty Years of Evidence and What Works Instead”, is to be released on August 24, 2026.

Speakers during the webinar would include a Senior Research Fellow at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute and author of the book “Eating Tomorrow”, Timothy Wise; the General Coordinator of AFSA and a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), Million Belay; a farmer and women’s rights activist from Niaguis in southern Senegal, the Chair of the Pan-African movement, Nous Sommes la Solution (We are the Solution), which operates across seven West African countries, Mariama Sonko; as well as the National Coordinator of the Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB), and Chair of the Seed and Knowledge Initiative (SKI), Mutinta Nketani.

Lead researcher and community leaders would present the reports’ findings, and ground them in the lived realities of what two decades of Green Revolution model had meant for farmers and consumers, as well as what alternatives are already taking root on ground. AFSA is Africa’s largest civil society movement, bringing together farmers, pastoralists, fishers, indigenous, faith groups, women’s movements, youths, and consumer associations in a united voice for food sovereignty on the continent. It is a network of networks operating in 50 African countries, reaching 200 million people. Meanwhile, journalists interested in covering the story can reach out to: kirubel.tadele@afsafrica.org, or hyojin@agrowingculture.org, the statement added.