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“There’s an ongoing fight for the future of farming and Africans are finding they are having to farm the way the Gates Foundation wants them to. As Million Belay and Bridget Mugambe see it, there are two competing – and mutually exclusive – visions for the future of African agriculture.
The first, espoused by their Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), prioritises small-scale, eco-friendly cultivation in which farmers grow a variety of nutritious crops while protecting biodiversity.
The second vision, as represented by the Gates Foundation and the research institutes it supports, holds that African farmers should switch to high-yield commodity crops with genetically modified seeds and increase the use of agrochemical fertilisers and pesticides. In support of this approach, the Gates Foundation has pumped more than $5-billion into farm initiatives in Africa. So far, it hasn’t worked. But because of its vast wealth and influence, there is no space for other viewpoints making its vision a priority.
Read the full analysis in Issue 101 of The Continent. Sign up for a subscription on WhatsApp or Signal on +27 73 805 6068 or join the mailing list by emailing us at Read@TheContinent.org. It’s free.”
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