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A Kenyan woman picks tea leaves at a tea plantation in Mathioya Constituency, Muranga, Kenya on August 20, 2021. - Kenya's tea-farming industry is the world's third-largest after China and India, and the world's largest exporter and producer of black tea. In most parts of Kenya, tea harvesting remains traditionally done by hand.
The agency cannot claim to be providing “aid” to Africa while partnering with AGRA.
We are dismayed to learn that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently solidified its relationship with AGRA (formerly the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) and committed to working with AGRA to transform African food and agriculture systems.
The agricultural model promoted by AGRA ramps up the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, privatized seed varieties, and exploitative market and credit systems, and it hurts farmers while benefiting private companies (including large foreign corporations). Using taxpayer money, USAID has funded AGRA and AGRA-funded projects that largely benefit the private sector at the expense of small farmers and the environment. Independent studies have demonstrated that AGRA has failed to improve food security in the countries where it operates, and an evaluation commissioned by a major AGRA funder, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has found that AGRA’s PIATA program has failed to meaningfully increase farmers’ yields or incomes as promised.
Last year, our organizations worked together and independently to demand that USAID break ties with AGRA. Hundreds of African organizations and allied international organizations have called on USAID and other donors to stop funding AGRA and other Green Revolution-inspired industrial models of agriculture on the continent. As a key leader in this international movement, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is Africa's largest civil society network, representing 200 million farmers. AFSA met with members of Congress to address the issues surrounding AGRA and its adverse impact on African communities and food producers and to call on lawmakers to ensure that USAID funding is no longer used toward AGRA initiatives.
The agricultural model promoted by AGRA ramps up the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, privatized seed varieties, and exploitative market and credit systems, and it hurts farmers while benefiting private companies
Acting in solidarity, CAGJ/AGRA Watch led a campaign in which over 1300 people sent letters to USAID representatives, echoing AFSA’s demands and concerns about the flawed and failing “Green Revolution” in Africa. In August 2022, we informed you personally about the status of the letter campaign, urging you and USAID to break ties with AGRA, engage in wider consultations with African farmer associations and civil society groups, and devote more funding to community-based agroecological initiatives, best practices, and research in Africa.
At the same time, we have been communicating our concerns about USAID’s relationship with AGRA through congressional avenues. We wrote about these concerns to members of Congress, including Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.); Reps. Adam Smith, Pramila Jayapal, and Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.); Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
USAID’s renewed commitments to working with AGRA indicate an unwillingness to change course and the continuation of practices that further business interests while damaging the natural resource base of local communities, eroding their diverse indigenous food systems, and undermining their resilience to withstand multiple challenges, including the climate crisis.
You cannot claim to be providing “aid” to Africa while partnering with AGRA. This continued relationship reflects and reinforces neocolonial relationships, in which many of the economic benefits are actually redirected and reinvested back into powerful and wealthy institutions in the US and Europe, rather than in Africa.
There are many problems with AGRA, including:
USAID must change course and prioritize funding agroecology, as hundreds of millions of African smallholder farmers demand. Multiple international bodies have emphasized the need for an agroecological food system transformation to address climate change and systemic inequality. Agroecology applies ecological principles to food production, as well as addressing issues of equity, social justice, and fair distribution. Funded projects should fulfill all of the key principles of agroecology as outlined by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition.
This continued relationship reflects and reinforces neocolonial relationships, in which many of the economic benefits are actually redirected and reinvested back into powerful and wealthy institutions in the US and Europe, rather than in Africa.
If USAID is to have any place in a future centered on African sovereignty and self-sufficiency, you must:
Sincerely,
Heather Day
Executive Director
Community Alliance for Global Justice / AGRA Watch
Million Belay
General Coordinator
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa
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We are dismayed to learn that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently solidified its relationship with AGRA (formerly the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) and committed to working with AGRA to transform African food and agriculture systems.
The agricultural model promoted by AGRA ramps up the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, privatized seed varieties, and exploitative market and credit systems, and it hurts farmers while benefiting private companies (including large foreign corporations). Using taxpayer money, USAID has funded AGRA and AGRA-funded projects that largely benefit the private sector at the expense of small farmers and the environment. Independent studies have demonstrated that AGRA has failed to improve food security in the countries where it operates, and an evaluation commissioned by a major AGRA funder, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has found that AGRA’s PIATA program has failed to meaningfully increase farmers’ yields or incomes as promised.
Last year, our organizations worked together and independently to demand that USAID break ties with AGRA. Hundreds of African organizations and allied international organizations have called on USAID and other donors to stop funding AGRA and other Green Revolution-inspired industrial models of agriculture on the continent. As a key leader in this international movement, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is Africa's largest civil society network, representing 200 million farmers. AFSA met with members of Congress to address the issues surrounding AGRA and its adverse impact on African communities and food producers and to call on lawmakers to ensure that USAID funding is no longer used toward AGRA initiatives.
The agricultural model promoted by AGRA ramps up the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, privatized seed varieties, and exploitative market and credit systems, and it hurts farmers while benefiting private companies
Acting in solidarity, CAGJ/AGRA Watch led a campaign in which over 1300 people sent letters to USAID representatives, echoing AFSA’s demands and concerns about the flawed and failing “Green Revolution” in Africa. In August 2022, we informed you personally about the status of the letter campaign, urging you and USAID to break ties with AGRA, engage in wider consultations with African farmer associations and civil society groups, and devote more funding to community-based agroecological initiatives, best practices, and research in Africa.
At the same time, we have been communicating our concerns about USAID’s relationship with AGRA through congressional avenues. We wrote about these concerns to members of Congress, including Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.); Reps. Adam Smith, Pramila Jayapal, and Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.); Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
USAID’s renewed commitments to working with AGRA indicate an unwillingness to change course and the continuation of practices that further business interests while damaging the natural resource base of local communities, eroding their diverse indigenous food systems, and undermining their resilience to withstand multiple challenges, including the climate crisis.
You cannot claim to be providing “aid” to Africa while partnering with AGRA. This continued relationship reflects and reinforces neocolonial relationships, in which many of the economic benefits are actually redirected and reinvested back into powerful and wealthy institutions in the US and Europe, rather than in Africa.
There are many problems with AGRA, including:
USAID must change course and prioritize funding agroecology, as hundreds of millions of African smallholder farmers demand. Multiple international bodies have emphasized the need for an agroecological food system transformation to address climate change and systemic inequality. Agroecology applies ecological principles to food production, as well as addressing issues of equity, social justice, and fair distribution. Funded projects should fulfill all of the key principles of agroecology as outlined by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition.
This continued relationship reflects and reinforces neocolonial relationships, in which many of the economic benefits are actually redirected and reinvested back into powerful and wealthy institutions in the US and Europe, rather than in Africa.
If USAID is to have any place in a future centered on African sovereignty and self-sufficiency, you must:
Sincerely,
Heather Day
Executive Director
Community Alliance for Global Justice / AGRA Watch
Million Belay
General Coordinator
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa
We are dismayed to learn that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently solidified its relationship with AGRA (formerly the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) and committed to working with AGRA to transform African food and agriculture systems.
The agricultural model promoted by AGRA ramps up the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, privatized seed varieties, and exploitative market and credit systems, and it hurts farmers while benefiting private companies (including large foreign corporations). Using taxpayer money, USAID has funded AGRA and AGRA-funded projects that largely benefit the private sector at the expense of small farmers and the environment. Independent studies have demonstrated that AGRA has failed to improve food security in the countries where it operates, and an evaluation commissioned by a major AGRA funder, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has found that AGRA’s PIATA program has failed to meaningfully increase farmers’ yields or incomes as promised.
Last year, our organizations worked together and independently to demand that USAID break ties with AGRA. Hundreds of African organizations and allied international organizations have called on USAID and other donors to stop funding AGRA and other Green Revolution-inspired industrial models of agriculture on the continent. As a key leader in this international movement, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is Africa's largest civil society network, representing 200 million farmers. AFSA met with members of Congress to address the issues surrounding AGRA and its adverse impact on African communities and food producers and to call on lawmakers to ensure that USAID funding is no longer used toward AGRA initiatives.
The agricultural model promoted by AGRA ramps up the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, privatized seed varieties, and exploitative market and credit systems, and it hurts farmers while benefiting private companies
Acting in solidarity, CAGJ/AGRA Watch led a campaign in which over 1300 people sent letters to USAID representatives, echoing AFSA’s demands and concerns about the flawed and failing “Green Revolution” in Africa. In August 2022, we informed you personally about the status of the letter campaign, urging you and USAID to break ties with AGRA, engage in wider consultations with African farmer associations and civil society groups, and devote more funding to community-based agroecological initiatives, best practices, and research in Africa.
At the same time, we have been communicating our concerns about USAID’s relationship with AGRA through congressional avenues. We wrote about these concerns to members of Congress, including Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.); Reps. Adam Smith, Pramila Jayapal, and Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.); Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
USAID’s renewed commitments to working with AGRA indicate an unwillingness to change course and the continuation of practices that further business interests while damaging the natural resource base of local communities, eroding their diverse indigenous food systems, and undermining their resilience to withstand multiple challenges, including the climate crisis.
You cannot claim to be providing “aid” to Africa while partnering with AGRA. This continued relationship reflects and reinforces neocolonial relationships, in which many of the economic benefits are actually redirected and reinvested back into powerful and wealthy institutions in the US and Europe, rather than in Africa.
There are many problems with AGRA, including:
USAID must change course and prioritize funding agroecology, as hundreds of millions of African smallholder farmers demand. Multiple international bodies have emphasized the need for an agroecological food system transformation to address climate change and systemic inequality. Agroecology applies ecological principles to food production, as well as addressing issues of equity, social justice, and fair distribution. Funded projects should fulfill all of the key principles of agroecology as outlined by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition.
This continued relationship reflects and reinforces neocolonial relationships, in which many of the economic benefits are actually redirected and reinvested back into powerful and wealthy institutions in the US and Europe, rather than in Africa.
If USAID is to have any place in a future centered on African sovereignty and self-sufficiency, you must:
Sincerely,
Heather Day
Executive Director
Community Alliance for Global Justice / AGRA Watch
Million Belay
General Coordinator
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa