Two new reports have concluded that Africa’s Green Revolution model has failed to deliver on its promise of reducing hunger and transforming the continent’s agricultural systems.
The reports documented the outcomes of two decades of interventions associated with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
The reports, by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and Tufts University researcher, Timothy A. Wise, are being released as AGRA marks its 20th anniversary with a continent-wide celebration tour.
According to the findings, the number of undernourished people across AGRA focus countries has increased by 58 per cent since 2006, despite AGRA’s stated objective of cutting hunger by half.
The latest assessment represents a significant deterioration from an earlier 2020 assessment, which had found a 31 per cent increase in undernourishment across the same countries.
The reports also questioned the effectiveness of the Green Revolution model’s emphasis on increased use of commercial fertilisers, improved seeds and other external agricultural inputs.
They found that staple crop yield growth has slowed since AGRA’s establishment compared with the 12 years preceding its launch, even though fertiliser use across the region has more than doubled.
Rather than achieving the promised “sustainable intensification” of agriculture through higher productivity on existing farmland, the reports said much of the increase in food production resulted from the expansion of cultivated land.
Cropland expanded by 46 per cent since 2006, raising concerns over deforestation, land degradation and the long-term sustainability of the agricultural model.
The researchers pointed to Senegal as a contrasting example. The country, which was not an AGRA focus country, achieved the target that AGRA had set for its own focus countries by cutting hunger by half during the period under review.
Reacting to the findings, Mutinta Nketani, National Coordinator of the Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity (ZAAB), said the experience of farmers in Zambia demonstrated the limitations of the model.
“After billions poured into AGRA aligned policies, farmers have only grown hungrier and more in debt,” Nketani said, insisting that Africa “cannot continue this way.”
The findings are expected to feature prominently at a virtual press conference scheduled for Monday, August 24, 2026, bringing together researchers, farmers and food sovereignty advocates to examine the impact of two decades of Green Revolution policies and highlight alternatives being developed by African farmers.
The event, scheduled for 9 a.m. EST, 1 p.m. GMT in Accra and Bamako, and 4 p.m. EAT in Nairobi, will feature simultaneous English and French interpretation.
Million Belay, General Coordinator of AFSA, said that agroecology was already providing practical alternatives to the industrial agricultural model.
“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.”
Belay called for greater investment in approaches that are demonstrating results at community level, saying, “It’s time to fund what works.”
The reports advocate greater attention to farmer-led and agroecological approaches that prioritise soil restoration, biodiversity, indigenous and farmer-managed seed systems, crop diversification and reduced dependence on costly external inputs.
Wise’s assessment, titled: “Requiem for Africa’s Green Revolution,” was published on August 17, while AFSA’s report, “The Green Revolution Has Failed Africa: Twenty Years of Evidence and What Works Instead,” is scheduled for release on August 24.
The press conference will be moderated by Raj Patel, author, filmmaker and academic.
Speakers will include Belay; Mariama Sonko, a farmer and women’s rights activist from southern Senegal and Chair of the Pan-African movement Nous Sommes la Solution (We are the Solution); Nketani; and Wise, a senior research fellow at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute and author of Eating Tomorrow.
The organisers said that the event would provide an opportunity to move beyond aggregate agricultural statistics and examine the lived experiences of farmers and consumers under the Green Revolution model, while showcasing food and farming systems that communities are already developing across Africa.
The findings are likely to intensify debate over the future direction of agricultural policy and investment on the continent, particularly the balance between industrial input-driven agriculture and farmer-led agroecological systems.
At the heart of the debate is a fundamental question: after 20 years of major investments and policy interventions, should Africa continue to pursue the Green Revolution model – or redirect resources towards approaches that farmers say are delivering greater resilience, food sovereignty and sustainability?
