Should efforts to engineer a “green revolution” in Africa focus on cutting-edge biotechnology or more conventional technologies?
I think we need to do both. Countries like Argentina, Brazil, China or India , which are growing and coming out of poverty, are using both. We need advanced science to come up with new products. In Asia, during the green revolution there, researchers produced a high-yielding rice quickly and that worked as a catalyst. But a product by itself can’t solve the problem. You need to increase the investment in agriculture, you need to add mechanisation, you have to have pesticides, and you need good policies. Our tissue culture banana doubled what the farmers produced. But that won’t help without good management and access to the market. You need to look at the weak points in the value chain and be able to target those weak points. What has the patronage of Kofi Annan, as the chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, meant for efforts to improve agriculture in Africa? I think he has meant a huge deal because he can talk to presidents and hold them accountable. He is at their
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