One generation ago, what became known as "the green revolution" doubled food production in parts of Asia and Latin America, reducing malnutrition and lifting millions out of poverty.
Now the Rockefeller Foundation, whose scientists helped to lay the groundwork for that breakthrough, is teaming with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to repeat the success in Africa. Last week the two charities announced an initial pledge of $150 million over five years to start down that road.
The money will boost African seed-breeding programs that develop higher-yielding strains of local crops. It will fund the training of African scientists so that the seed-breeding programs can be enlarged. And it will bolster the distribution networks that bring seeds and fertilizer to farmers.
Legions of development experts have locked horns with Africa's rural poverty and then retreated hurt. The continent's physical capital is rudimentary: Irrigation systems and rural roads to get food to market are scarce. Its human capital is no better: African farmers are held back by sickness and illiteracy. Its social capital constitutes another handicap: The legal framework needed to permit the licensing of seed technologies to private distributors is often missing, and perverse regulations often make it difficult to farm for profit. Add in water scarcity and soil erosion, and you can see why previous calls for a green revolution in Africa have come to little.
[From a WaPo editorial]
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