This book explores recent experiences in the effort to bring about a
Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The chapters focus on rice
and maize, which are promising and strategic smallholder crops.
Significantly, we find that an African Rice Revolution has already begun
in many irrigated areas, using Asian-type modern varieties, chemical
fertilizer, and improved management practices. Further, we find that the
same technological package significantly increases the productivity and
profitability of rice farming in rainfed areas as well. We also find
evidence that that management training, when done well, can boost
productivity on smallholder farms. This suggests that African
governments can accelerate the pace of Africa's Rice Revolution by
strengthening extension capacity.
The story for maize is wholly different, where most farmers use local
varieties, apply little chemical fertilizer, and obtain very low yields.
However, in the highly populated highlands of Kenya, a number of farmers
have adopted high-yielding hybrid maize varieties and chemical
fertilizer, as was the case in the Asian Green Revolution, apply manure
produced by stall-fed cows, as was the case during the British
Agricultural Revolution, and keep improved cows or cross-breeds from
European cows and local stock, as was the case of the Indian White
Revolution. We conclude that while rice in Africa has benefited from an
Asian Green Revolution strategy that emphasizes modern seeds, inputs,
and focused knowledge transfers, the success of Africa's Maize
Revolution will require a different system approach based on hybrid
maize, chemical and organic fertilizers, and stall-fed cross-bred cows.
