faces revised aug 16

8/9/2019 Faces Revised Aug 16

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The Faces of the Green Revolution in this publicationare just a few of the many farmers, scientists andentrepreneurs who are changing the landscape of

African agriculture with the support of nationalgovernments, the international community andorganizations like AGRA. This is what can beaccomplished when smallholder farmers work with thetools of modern agriculturerobust, high-yielding seed,practical integrated soil fertility and water managementpractices, affordable credit and efcient markets.

These are the actual faces of Africas Green Revolution and these are their success stories.They represent the many men and women whose potential, when unlocked, are driving the

transformation of Africas agricultural systems and development of Africas economies.

They show us that progress is being made; there is a way out of hunger and poverty.

But they need our active and focused support. If we are to meet the Millennium

Development Goals in 2015 and deliver on the worlds commitment to reduce human

suffering, we must accelerate this momentum. This is the goal of an African Green

Revolution and it is why we are gathering at this forum in Accra: to make real on our

commitments, to pool our resources, our experience and our best thinking to rapidly

advance a sustainable, uniquely African Green Revolution.

A G R A F A C E S | PA G E 1


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SeedsFarming starts with a seed. Africa is facing a shortage inquality seeds suitable to African environments, local tastes

and consumer preferences. Closing the seed gap startswith training scientists to breed new crops for their people,

setting up local companies to multiply those seeds andthen making them available at prices farmers can afford.

Over 9,000 agrodealers have been trained to better serve

farmers. AGRAs support to breeders and local African

seed companies has enabled 140 new varieties of seed tonot just be developed but to get into farmers hands. Last

year alone, 8,500 MTs of new seed was produced and that

amount will double by the end of this year.

SoilsAfrica loses roughly $4 billion in soil nutrients each year,costing farmers in lost productivity and eroding the

continents ability to feed itself. But simple solutions canreverse the trend. AGRAs programs in soil health are

working to restore 6.3 million hectares of degradedfarmland over 10 years. Whether its setting Africas rst

digital soil map to monitor the problem and inform decision

making or promoting the use of lime to counteract western

Kenyas acidic soils or increasing the use of fertilizermicrodosing by farmers in the Sahel, AGRA is focused on

stemming the crisis and transforming Africas soils from a

curse into blessing for smallholder farmers.


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MarketsFarming is a business, not just a way of life. For decades, Africanfarmers had two choices at harvest timesell immediately at a low

price to middlemen or let the crop go to waste. AGRA brings new

solutions to old problems by using available technology like radio

and mobile phone messaging to make sure farmers get a fair deal

and earn a prot. The establishment of warehouse receipt systemssupported by commercial banks gives farmers an opportunity to

store their crops when prices are low after harvest, and sell them

later at a higher price when prices go up. AGRA supports a number

of projects to improve crop storage and post harvest managementto reduce post harvest losses. It facilitates increased aggregation of

smallholder producers into farmers groups and associations

reducing farmers transaction costs. This has helped more than20,000 farmers in Uganda to more effectively market their produce.

PolicyGetting better seeds and inputs to farmers and ensuring they haveaccess to markets and credit for requires a supportive policy

environment. In Malawi, Tanzania and Rwanda, effective polices

have eased farmers access to seeds and fertilizer to help produce

bountiful harvests and generate impressive economic growth.

Changing policies that drive up the cost and reduce availability offertilizer for the smallholder farmer has been one of AGRAs big

successes. Such changes reect an emerging consensus policy

support is essential to transforming Africas agricultural sector.

Farmers and agribusinesses also need affordable credit. Typically,Africas commercial banks extend less than 3% of their lending to

agriculturedespite the major role it plays in African economies.

AGRA and its partners have mobilized $160 million in affordableloans from local commercial banks through credit guarantees. Thisis the new face of African agriculture.


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Maimouna Coulibaly

Thanks to the ingenuity and persistence of one Malian woman, Maimouna Coulibably, and AGRA support to allow

local, African entrepreneurs a chance to gain expertise in the highly specialized eld of seed production and marketing,

for the rst time ever, poor farmers in Mali can now purchase quality seeds for local food crops. Her independent,

private seed company, Faso Kabo, has brought more than 300 metric tons of improved seeds to smallholder farmersso they can achieve high yield crops in key foods such as maize, sorghum, cowpea, rice and vegetables. This is

helping to address food security in Africa.


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Bassidou Samake

Upon his fathers passing, Bassidou Samake, a farmer in Sanankoroba Village in Mali, assumed leadership of his 42-person

family, and struggled with the huge challenge of feeding his many relatives. With just a 6thgrade education and no formal

source of income, Samake also looked for help from Faso Kaba, a local seed company supported by AGRA. Today, Samake

has three deals with Faso Kaba; he is one of 50 local farmers who produce seed for the company. Bassidous farm is alsoused to demonstrate new technologies to other local farmers and he has started a small supply shop that sells improved

seeds and fertilizers to farmers in the neighborhood.


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Bino Teme

After years of diligent work, Malian sorghum breeders led by Dr. Bino Teme, the director of Rural Economic Institute (IER),

have nally broken the yield barrier of one of the countrys most important food crops. The hybridswhich stand to quadruple

the harvests of this drought-hardy staplewill be released to farmers across Mali. Teme expects up to 50 per cent of farmers

to adopt the new varieties within several years. Over the next year, the IER will train seed producers on the breedingtechniques and carry out demonstrations to promote the seeds among farmers. AGRA supports the breeding efforts of the

IER, extending a tradition of innovation at the Institute.


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Koptegei Widows Group

In 2007, 24 women farmers came together to form the Koptegei Widows Group and pool their meager earnings through aninformal savings arrangement. Group leader Christine Chebii Ngogi tells how the women struggled to generate income as they

faced a lack of capital and skill. But their subsistence farming received a boost from AGRAs partnerships with Cereal Growers

Association (CGA), the World Food Programs Purchase for Progress (P4P) and Equity Bank. Through these collaborations, thewomen received valuable harvest production and business training, as well as nancial backing, which eventually led them to wina competitive tender with P4P to deliver 250MT of maize worth 6 million Kenya shillings.


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Dinnah Kapiza

Dinnah Kapiza transformed her used clothing business into a full-line farming supply store in rural Malawi. Opened with an investment

equivalent to just US$310, her agro-dealer shop now turns over US$36,800 worth of farm supplies every year. Kapiza got her start with

the assistance of AGRA grantee the Malawi Agrodealer Strengthening Program. It trains entrepreneurial men and women like Kapiza in

business management and provides a steady supply of farm products. Today her shop serves about 600 smallholder farmers within a 15kilometer radius, selling seeds, farm tools, crop protection products and fertilizerand dispensing crucial advice. Kapiza is one of

thousands of agro-dealers in eleven countries trained through AGRA support and now serving smallholder farmers.


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Leldet

After three years of toil, Janey Leakey, a founding director of Leldet Seed Company in Nakuru, Kenya, can rest assured that improved

varieties of underutilized crops like pigeon pea, sorghum, soya beans, chick pea and ground nut will nally be approved for production

by the Kenya Plant Health Inspection Services. Breeders have historically faced many nancial and bureaucratic hurdles in getting new

crop varieties certied, and in the hands of farmers. But through an AGRA grant, Leldet has not only surmounted those hurdles, butalso conducted more than 600 demonstrations to tens of thousands of farmers across Kenya. Its sales of small seed packsmatched

to the size of farmers pocketbooks and acreageis raising yields and spurring demand for high quality, certied seed


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A G R A F A C E S | PA G E 1 0

Annet Mubiru

As an agro-dealer in rural Uganda, Annet Mubiru is gratied when farmers benet from her farm products and advice. One of the

farmers she has helped is Sebulega John Bosco, who more than doubled the yield of beans on his diverse farm. Yet, many farmers still

dont get the chance to work with well-stocked, well-informed agro-dealers like Mubiru. AGRA aims to train and certify 9,000 agro-

dealers by 2011, increasing farmers access to affordable inputs. AGRA is also making low-interest loans available to agro-dealers, sothey can fully stock their shelves, and to small-scale farmers so they can invest in their farm businesses. Then, like Sebulega John

Bosco, farmers will be able to boost their yields and incomes. Farms can be small, sustainable and protable.


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A G R A F A C E S | P AG E 11

Geoffrey Kananji

Bean farmers in Malawi have long battled with bruchid beetles which destroy crops in storage waiting to be eaten or sold. Geoffrey

Kananji, Ph.D., National Research Coordinator for Legumes, Fibres and Oilseed crops in Malawi, has dedicated his research to

developing bruchid-resistant bean varieties, a solution that would greatly help the countrys many smallholder farmers. Kananji is

also inspiring a movement to actively involve farmers in the plant breeding and research process. AGRAs support of Kanaji andother African crop breeders has led to the release of dozens of pest- and disease-resistant crop varieties that are well adapted to

their local environments.


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Joanina Kibuti

Peter and Joanina Kibuti, farmers from Kenyas Embu region, took advantage of the AGRA-supported Citizens Network of Foreign Affairs

(CNFA) farm training programs in their community. They organized into groups of 15 farmers each, collectively purchased quality seed andfertilizers and shared the cost of transporting those inputs to their farms. With these resources and better farming practices, group

members more than tripled their maize yields. They opened a cereal bank to store their surplus and used their collective bargaining powerto negotiate a good sales price. Now the group plans to start grinding and packaging their own maize our to add value to their crop. With

AGRA support, Embu farmers are transforming the entire food value chain, to the benet of their families and communities.


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Hadji Wanonda

In Namulonge, Uganda, Hadji Wanonda grows Nerica, a variety of rice so unique and productive that its breeders won

the World Food Prize in 2004. Nerica is not restricted to growing in paddies. Even without irrigation it can be grown in

places that no one before thought possible. Hadjis willingness to invest in new crop varieties like Nerica has paid off

handsomely. He now makes up to US$800 in three months by selling his surplus and he is employing local men andwomen to help with farm work. Hadjis story is part of a larger effort supported by AGRA to boost African rice production

and achieve African food security.


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Elizabethi Justin

Elizabethi Justin lost her mother and her chance for a college education when she was 19. Today, at just 24 years of age,

Elizabethi has opened her third agro-dealer shop in Olmokea Village. And, she plans to open a fourth, all with the help of an

affordable loan made possible by AGRA, the National Micronance Bank, and the Financial Sector Deepening Trust. Qualifying

for the loan took persistence, for bank ofcers looked at the young woman before them and questioned whether she wouldmake good on her debt. But Elizabethi triumphed. She received the loan and repaid it in just six months. Now she remembers

and repeats her mothers words to her own four-year-old daughter, Every woman can become anything they want in life.


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Francis and Juliana Mutungi

Francis and Juliana Mutungi, two farmers in eastern Kenya, joined with 24 fellow members of a local farming cooperative to express thanks

to their friends and partnersplant breeders Clement Kamau and Joseph Kamau. The two AGRA-supported scientists had worked with the

farmers to develop a new variety of disease-resistant cassava which produces a crop in nine months instead of 16, ensuring an additional

harvest. Today, Francis and Juliana stand amid plants that are three-to-four feet high, with healthy green leaves. This year, they will have abumper cropenough not only to eat, but to sell to the local bakery, which will grind it into our to make breads and buns. With the

additional income, Francis will be able to pay the school fees for his ten children and buy more land to expand his farm and livelihood.


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Mildred Mmbasu

Mildred Mmbasus ourishing maize is a testament to a new farming practice in Majemo Village - the use of soil lime to

counteract acidic soils. Mildred is eager for her neighbors to take up the practice and proudly shows the results of this simple but

effective technique. Crops like beans, cassava and vegetables as well as maize are ourishing with the use of lime. Now, lessons

from their farms are spreading far and wide. An initial pilot project is being scaled up to restore the soils and diversify farming for50,000 farmers in the region. It is the result of a broad program involving farmers, agro-dealers, researchers, two local fertilizer

companies, a local bank, civil society and AGRA.


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Paulo Ngondola

Paulo Ngondola grows maize and groundnuts and raises chickens. Not long ago, Paulo was a beneciary of the government voucher

system which provides subsidized seed and fertilizer to resource-poor farmers. The system worked as it was meant to and today Paulo

buys his own inputs and markets his surplus through the AGRA-supported Supermarkets in the Air program run by the Malawi Agricultural

Commodity Exchange. Paulo embraced new agricultural technologiesimproved seed and better soil managementacquired from agro-dealer Dinnah Kapiza and now he owns a new house and holds a bank account. Paulo Ngondola, the 2008 winner of the Malawi National

Achievers Award, demonstrates the indisputable role of persons with disabilities towards food security and economic stability in Africa.


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Chrispus Oduori

When Chrispus Oduori was a child, he would watch his mother grind nger millet into our, then mix and cook it into a porridge called ugali.

Today, Chrispus is the rst plant breeder in all of Africa to have received a PhD in nger milleta grain that feeds more than 100 million

people across Africadespite its low yield. Chrispus earned his degree from the AGRA-supported African Center for Crop Improvement in

South Africa. Now, he is working with the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute and farmers in his home district to develop high-yieldingvarieties of the classic African grain. In one demonstration eld, farmers planted a row of the commonly used variety, with two rows of

Chrispus improved seeds on either side. The old variety has barely begun to sprout, while the new seeds are green and vigorously growing.


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Ibrahim Benesi

In southern Malawi, farmers assess the yield of cassava by the number of plants a farmer must harvest to make a meal. In the past,

three plants grown from a local variety were needed to make a meal for a family of ten. Now, that arithmetic has changed thanks to

cassava breeder Ibrahim Benesi. Only one plant of a new variety developed by Ibrahim produces enough to feed the same size of family.

AGRA supports Ibrahims work at the Chitedze Agricultural Research Station. There, he is working closely with farmers to developanother 10 varieties able to resist plant viruses, produce large tasty cassava in record time, and store and process well. This is not the

end but just the beginning of research, and involving the farmer is the key to ending the food crisis, says Ibrahim.


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Chopi Lovemore

The last thing youd expect a seed seller in Malawi to be talking about is building an empire. But Lovemore Chopi isnt your average seed

seller. After a few months of selling vegetable seeds on the sidewalks of Blantyre, Lovemore decided it was time for a change. He enrolled

in a training course supported by AGRA on business and marketing for agrodealers. And the rest is history. Chopi recently purchased a

new BMW with prots from rapidly expanding business. Although a conversation with Chopi sounds a lot more like a conversation onewould expect from a budding hip hop mogul or a European football star, his dreams are just as big. With the right support in business

processes, African entrepreneurs are changing the face of the agriculture helping farmers succeed and helping themselves succeed.


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Dr Henry B. Obeng

Dr. Henry Benjamin Obeng, Ghanas rst soil scientist, was, until his retirement in 1982, the Director General of the Soil Research Institute (SRI)

of the Council for Scientic and Industrial Research (CSIR). Dr. Obeng is also the renowned for being the rst African to get a graduate degree

in Soil Science. His contribution to the eld of soil science, despite a less-publicized personal life has made him a global gure for over many

decades. Dr. Obeng strongly believes that to achieve agricultural transformation in Africa, African governments need to encourage the youths

to enroll in soil science and agronomy at all levels of education. AGRA is also helping to train the next generation of experts who can bringsmarter thinking to agriculture policies. So far, this support has added 130 graduates to the next generation of Africas scientists.


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Rukira Secondary School

Rukira Secondary School, a girls only school in Kenya, learnt about Tissue Culture (TC) bananas from another school in their

area. The students planted 300 stems with 291 surviving but not yet owered. AGRA supports the introduction and diffusion of

TC banana in Kenya which is not only a reliable food security crop but also a major commercial option for cash-strapped

smallholder farmers. AGRA is now working to scale-up out the benets of TC banana technology in Kenya across the whole

value chain Model. AGRA also actively supports agricultural activities and education in many schools across sub-Saharan Africa.Young people are the future of African agriculture.


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AGRA remains dedicated to catalyzing a Green Revolution inAfrica. In partnership with others, we are supporting thousandsof farmers, small agribusinesses, current and future scientistsand policy makers across sub-Saharan Africa transform farmingfrom a mere subsistence livelihood to protable operations. Weare already seeing the results of innovative intervention andinvestment in the smallholder agricultural sector.Bringing the Africa Green Revolution Forum to Africa gives all a sense that momentum is accelerating

and the massive change needed in the agricultural sector is within reach. Each success story you read

has an even wider circle of impactimproving the lives of thousands of families and communities. And

each of these men and women add to the legion of champions in the elds, in the research institutes

and in the corridors of power who see that a strong agricultural sector is the route out of poverty.

Going forward, we will build on these accomplishments and accelerate progress by assembling a

critical mass of resources in areas that hold the greatest promise of successthe breadbasket

regions of Africa. With smart planning and investment, these areas can achieve signicant production

increases and make an enormous difference to a countrys food security. They will change from areas

of chronic food shortage to productive breadbaskets bursting with Africas staple food crops.

Working with partners globally and locally, we will continue our efforts to mobilize investments and

stimulate innovation in smallholder farming to bring about a uniquely Green Revolution in Africa.

Namanga Ngongi


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faces revised aug 16

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