Feature

The Green RevolutionArrives in Africa

RICHARD J. BLAUSTEIN

The Green Revolution that brought advances in crop genetics to Asia and Latin America

completely bypassed the African continent. Africans smallholder farmers finally

joined the movement in 2006, when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined the

Rockefeller Foundation to create the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Its goal is to develop 100 new crop varieties in 5 years,

so that within 20 years farmers will double or triple their yields.

I he 20th century's Green Revo-J L lution, which introduced new

varieties of wheat and rice, dramaticallyincreased crop yields in Latin Americaand Asia. Yet it never became establishedin sub-Saharan Africa because of daunt-ing political and ecological challengesparticular to Africa. Still, sub-SaharanAfrica has never been without its own in-novations with regard to plant food. Forcenturies African communities have har-vested indigenous plant foodstuffs, suchas sorghum, cowpea, and African rice,and adopted such staples as cassava andmaize, which together were adequatesustenance for numerous communities.

The population of sub-Sah;iran Africais growing, with about 70 percent nowliving in rural areas, yet African agri-culture is not growing fast enough tomeet the dietary needs of African com-munities or provide farmers with suffi-cient livelihoods. Numerous episodesof pre- or posthnrvest hunger, extremeenvironmental stresses such as droughtand intense pest and weed infestations,and the insufficiency of global trade forAfrican food needs further weaken theagricultural situation in Africa. In re-

A studetil intern makes crosses betweenAfrican and Asian rice at the Sikasso

Research Center in Mali. In Africa,there is one iniUgcnons rice species,

Oryza glaberrinia, which wasdomesticated in the northern Niger

valley by Africa's first farmers. Anintroduced Asian species, Oryza sativa,

(5 currently the dominant rice speciesin Africa. Photograph: foe DeVries.

sponse, foundations and nongovern-mental orgiinizations are exploring in-novations in crop production and.idjustments to national and interna-tit)nai assistance policies to better sup-port African agriculture.

Although noteworthy scientific andpolicy work has gone on for years, thereal revolution began in 2006 when theBill and Melinda Gates and RockefellerFoundations jointly launched the Al-liance for a Green Revolution for Africii(AGRA), a landmark frontline initiativefor African agriculture. The Gates Foun-dation gave a boost to the long-standingwork supported by the Rockefeller Foun-dation, adding its approximately $100-million investment to Rockefeller's $50million, to produce agricultural im-provements in Africa. GaryToenniessen,a managing director of the RockefellerFoundation in New York, is a trainedmicrobiologist iind the interim presi-dent of AGRA. He points to AGRA'sthreefold focus: "One, use agronomicimprovements [for example, soil andwater management 1 to increase farmyield potential.... Two, {produce] geneticimprovements to reduce losses and en-

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hance quality ot crops, and three, makesure farmers benefit...from increases inproduction."

Plant geneticist Joe DeVries, whoworks with Toenniessen at the Rocke-feller Foundation and is based in Nairobi,leads ACiRA's seed systems program. Hedescribes the impact ofthe Gates Foun-dation's support for long-sought geneticiniiin>vcments in African crops:"Priortollie Hill and Mclinda tiates Foundation'sjoining forces with the Rockefeller Foun-diition, we had discovered that relyingon JList a few crop varieties wasn't work-ing in Africa. The existing varietiesworked well for some fiirmers, but oth-ers were completely left out, because noone had bred improved varieties for theirarea, and the existing varieties couldn't begrown.

"And so we began funding morelocalized, farmer-participatory methodsof breeding improved crop varieties. Thatwas where we made some breakthroughs,wilh stress-tolerant maize hybrids inKenya and beans, rice, and maize varietiesbred in Uganda all becoming popularwith local farmers. But the cost implica-tions of supporting large numbers oflocal breeding teams and building a largenumber of local seed enterprises weretoo great, really, tor the Rockefeller Foun-dation to handle on its own....This givesus a chance to do things on a much-expanded scale"

AGRA also focuses on changing thepolicy and market conditions for Africanagriculture. These policy objectives in-clude support for new and more locallyoriented seed companies, enhancementof national agricultural research centers,better access to fertilizer and water-maximizing systems, and streamlinedfarmer participation in the seed im-provement process.

Green Revolutions, then and nowThe first Green Revolution establishedtbe paradigm for a continent-wide agri-cultural program, but the name "GreenRevolution" obfuscates the fundamen-tal challenges presented by the newAfrican eftbrt." By the early 1960s," Toen-niessen says, "Asia had already madesignificant agronomic investments—Hit million hectares of irrigated land, in

Biological challenges for African crops.

Africa's farmers face many biotic and abiotic challenges to their main i:rop.s that scicntilk'and policy efforts must address. Intensified hybridization efforts, in particular, offer greatpotential fur some crops, as hybrid seeds tsciicrally proikicc plants that hiivc ̂ roiiter yieldpotential and arc more resilient than opcn-pullinatcil varieties.! lowcvcr, hybrid vigorlasts for one seeding, underscoring the importance of new agniecologiLally based .seedcompanies and retailers who, as loc DcVries .says, will "get the new .sced.s into Alrica'shiiUerland...at prices Africa's small-scale farmers Ciin afford." In addition to cowpea,cassava, finger millet, beans, rice, and pearl millet, AGRA will also focus on mai/c,sorghum, imd bananas.

particular. The yield potential of that ir-rigated land far exceeded the genetic yieldpotential ofthe crop varieties then beinggrown on It, so crop genetics was thelimiting factor. New, semidwarf, earlymaturing rice and wheat varieties sig-nificantly increased the genetic yieldpotential of these crops and on theirrigated land." For Africa, Toenniessencontinues, "the limiting factor...is not thegenetic yield potential of the crops cur-rently being grown. Tbe problem is thatso little of their genetic yield potential isrealized due to poor soils and crop losses."

DeVries says the Asian Green Revolu-tion was based primarily on yieldincreases in two crops—wheat and rice—

which were grown primarily under irri-gated conditions. Irrigation is a greatequalizing force in agriculture. TheAfrican tireen Revolution will by neces-sity involve increasing yields on a muchwider range of crops, grown under amuch wider range of tanning conditions,using rainfall as the main source of water.

"AGRA will support breeding and seeddelivery activities on 10 or more differentcrops, all of which are currently beingused by African farmers to provide fortheir families," DeVries continues. "All ofthese crops have their own set of geneticconstraints, whether it is susceptibilityto diseases, insects, parasitic weeds, orgrain molds. The list is long, but it can be

i n iijicUl i n Kyuzuti^iU in CfiUral U ^ a u i i a , S l a n k y N L i l u h o {ui luiij uuik.'- w i t hfarmers participating in a selection trial for new hean lines. Enlisting farmers'

participation is key to AGRA's h reed ing program, and helps breeders assessthe taste preferences and growing traits that lead farmers to adopt new lines.

Photograph: Isaac Mugagga.

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SEARCH FOR NOVEL CASSAVASTRMTS THROUGH INBREEDING

No OF ENTRIES: I 9PLAMTED: 25-10-2004

Plant pathologist Fina Opio, agricultural economist Anton Bua, and cassava breederRobert Kawuki stand amid a cassava planting at the Namulonge Research Stationof Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization. Interspecific breeding of

cassava has already produced greater resistance to two major diseases, Africancassava mosaic virus and cassava brown streak virus; improved starch quality; and

higher root protein content. Photograph: foe DeVries.

Rice breeder Fousseyni Cisse stands in his rice field at the Longorola ResearchStation, which is part of the Institute of Rural Economics in Mali. Cisse has

produced an interspecific hybrid of African rice fOryza glaberrimaj and Asian ricefOryza sativaj. Photograph: foe DeVries.

dealt with, provided we deploy plantbreeders into the local landscape to ad-dress these issues.

"We are in for a much more complexset of challenges," he explains,"and there-fore the African Green Revolution willprobably take longer and come insmaller—but equally meaningful to localfarmers—breakthroughs. By taking anagroecology-based approach and byinvolving farmers in each step of thetechnology development process, we canachieve a Green Revolution that is moresensitive to environmental factors andmore equitable to Africa's large numberof very poor farmers."

Anotlier substantial difference betweenthe agricultural revolutions is that thepublic support available for science andinfrastructure during tlie earlier GreenRevolution is largely absent today. Welles-ley Gollege political scientist Robert Paarl-berg, who writes on food security andbiotechnology issues, notes, "The shareof US official development assistancegoing to agriculture was 25 percent in1980; in 2006 it was 1 percent.... Theshare of World Bank lending that went tothe agricultural sector was 30 percent in1978; in 2006 it was 8 percent." Paarl-berg views this decrease as the result of apolarized policy context in which the leftcritically questions the fundamental ben-efits of the Green Revolution, while "theright, Reaganite and Thatcherite marketfundamentalists have argued that agri-cultural development should be left en-tirely to the private sector." With respectto African agriculture, Paarlberg says,"private foundations cannot do this jobalone," and he believes governments, bothoverseas and in Africa, need fo investmore in agriculture on the continent.

New appreciation is growing, how-ever, for the public policy considerationsconcerning African agriculture. With for-mer UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan aschairperson for AGRA, a move towardgreater governmental support for agri-cultural infrastructure in Africa may beunder way. And in October 2007, RobertZoellick, the new World Bank president,publicly embraced criticism of the WorldBank's diminished support for agricul-ture, promising a renewed commitmentfor future investments. In the meantime.

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while these a.spirations blossom or fade,ACiRA is plowing ahead with its pro-gram for improving African agriculture.

Breeders and cropsAGRA plans to enlist many different pol-icy and scientific efforts, al! of which areimportant. Perhaps AGRA's most notedscientific endeavor is supporting theefforts of tbe many breeders who workwith Africa's diverse agroecologics, whichare directly associated with one or moreparticular crops in Africa.

DeVries describes agroecologies asfarming areas "with a more or less com-mon set of constraints and advantages,that is,...rainfall amounts and distribu-tion, temperatures, soils, and other fac-tors important to crop growth," A fewexamples of agroecologies include therain-fed lowlands of Nigeria, Benin,Liberia, Mozambique, and Tanzaniawhere rice is grown; the lowland humidtropics of West African forest zones, theCongo Basin, and Mozambique wberecassava harvesting is significant; themarginal lands of tbe northern Guineasavannah, Sudan savannah, and Sahe-lian zones wbere cowpea is raised; andthe mid-altitude late-seasonal, maize-barvcsting areas of Nigeria, Cameroon,Zambia, eastern Angola, Tanzania,Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The breed-ers who work within tbe varied agro-ecologies of Africa play a central .scientificrole on the frontline of the biologicalchallenges of African agriculture. Theywork not so much with hypothesizedconcepts or untested technologies, butwith proven processes that spawn ge-netic and phenotypic innovations.

Stanley Nkalubo is a bean breeder inUganda who earned his PhD in breedingwith support from the Rockefeller Foun-dation. "The role of breeder in Africa isquite different from |that in] the devel-oped countries," Nkalubo says. "AnAfrican breeder bas to breed for small-holder farmers dispersed over an agro-ecological landscape that is moreheterogeneous than those in developedcountries. Also, the farmers in Africa havevarying demands, which are not easilytnet by one or two new varieties but (re-quire] a range of varieties....To come upwith a rantje of varieties to fiilfili all these

Maize Is particularly sensitive lo abioticstresses stich as drought. The biotic.stresses aftlicting maize vary betweenregions and agroccotogies. They includethe weed Striga, maize streak virus, andpest stem borers in lowland tropicalareas; comtnon rust (fuccinin sorghi)and the Turcicum leaf blight signifi-cantly afflict maize in highland agro-ecologies. According to DeVrios andToonnicssen, "outbreaks of importantpests and diseases of maize are relatedto complex egg-laying and sporulationresponses, which arc in turn dcpcndcniupon difficult-to-predict responses,global environmental lac tors,...andhuman activity." Notwithstanding thesestres.ses, DeVries say.s, for AGRA "maizeis a crop ot strategic importance." Hy-brid maize varieties, in particular, oflcrgreat potential for overcoming stressesand increasing yields.

requirements, breeders have to be equip-ped with vast quantities ot gerniplasmand technologies. And considering therate at which stresses are overcoming thenew and indigenous varieties, breederswill have to think of utilizing the newand easily acceptable technologies, likemarker-assisted selection, to reduce thetime within which new genes are incor-porated into the preferred varieties."

Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is abiotechnology for locating the genes andgenetic organization of desirable char-acteristics, Toenniessen explains, with-out resorting to transgenic modifications.MAS "enables breeders to follow the in-heritance of genes or traits in the labo-ratory rather than the field.... For traitsthat are difficult to score in the field,MAS speeds the breeding process." MAShas benefits for many African crops in ad-dition to beans.

Another breeder, Chrispus OduoriAdeti, focuses on finger millet in western

A farmer stands in his maize field near thetown of Bungama, in western Kenya.The hyhrid white maize growing in this field produces about three times the average

yield. It is most commonly used for porridge. Maize and cassava are the two mostimportant crops in Africa, with the highest maize consumption in eastern and

southern Africa. Photograph: Joe DeVries.

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Sorghum.

Sorghum is an indigenous African cropthat grows in semiarid areas. Althoughsorghum was taken to India fromAfrica, India has become a secondarysource for the crop; in India, unlike inAfrica, hybrid varieties have beencultivated. However, this is changing.DeVries comments, "The mostexciting—from AGRA's perspective-—developments on sorghum are theon-farm tests being conducted in Malithis year of hybrid guinea sorghumvarieties. These hybrids are partiallyderived from local landnices." As dif-ferent agroecologics require differenthybrids, AGRA is "funding hybridbreeding efforts in Kenya, Uganda, Mali,and soon in Malawi," Sorghum is proneto significant stresses, including thepathogen anthracnose, downy mildewfiingus infestations, and many paniclepests. However, for the most importantbiotic stress of sorghum in Africa—theweed Striga—there bave been break-througbs, especially in tbe developmentof Sfrigii-resistant sorgbum.

Kenya while also working on a PhD fromKwazulu University, in South Africa, withRockefeller Foundation support. "A plantbreeder," he says, "is a scientist whoapplies his skills...in mining the geneticpotential of the crop he or she is workingon for maximum benefit to humanity atany given time. The breeder is challengedwith the responsibility to provide geno-types that will optimally yield under theprevailing conditions of African agri-culture." Like Nkalubo, Oduori Adetiemphasizes that, for breeders in Africa, itis especially important to involve the par-ticipation and preferences of the localfarmers. "Farmers are the people whogrow this crop, especially the peasantfarmers, and they are the ones who knowtheir problems and needs," commentsOduori Adeti. "In fact, the work I amdoing started with a PRA [participatoryrural appraisal] to [learn] from farmerswhat they look for in a finger milletvariety. Then from what the farmersdescribe, and probably with some of theirgermpKism or landraces, we start devel-oping the desirable varieties throughcrosses and selection."

foe DeVries andAcar Toure, of the Institute of Rural Economy in Mali, standamidst sorghum. Toure recently developed the guinea-type hybrid varieties pictured

in this field test. Sorghum has a very high level of diversity in Africa and is anespecially important grain crop in semiarid areas of Africa. Photograph: Yvonne

Pinto, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Both Oduori Adeti and Nkalubo al-ready sec successes with tlie crops they arebreeding. Finger millet, a supplementalcereal crop, is, according to Oduori Adeti,"of particular importance in uplandareas of eastern Africa... [and] is produc-tive in a wide range of environments andgrowing conditions from sea level to al-titudes as high as the Ethiopian high-lands where it is thought to originate."Finger millet lacks storage pests andtherefore serves food security purposesfor otherwise low harvest times. OduoriAdeti says his priority is "to enhance fin-ger millet breeding methodologies, es-pecially hybridization, and improve yieldand resistance to abiotic and bioticstresses. This is because in Africa, thebreeding potential has hardly been ex-ploited due to the little research attentionthe crop has received previously." OduoriAdeti adds that, through his PhD pro-gram, "the first finger millet crosses havebeen made and are promising lo go along way in boosting finger millet yield."Preliminary tests have been done at re-search stations, and the next stage is togrow the new varieties in multiple locu-tions and, ultimately, on farmers' fields.The shared goal, he says, is "to boostfarmers' production for improved in-comes and food security and qutility."

Nkalubo also senses great promisewith his breeding work with beans. "Drybeans are one of the major food cropsgrown in Uganda on about 600,000hectares of land.... The crop is an im-portant source of calories and the mostimportant source of dietary protein forover 80 percent of the population, as themaiority, being poor, cannot afford dairyproducts, poultry, or fish." Nkalubo addsthat beans are "grown in environmentsthat suffer from both abiotic and bioticstresses, including diseases, insect pests,drought, [and] low soil fertility."

Nkalubo specializes in research on thecore pathogen of anthracnoses, destruc-tive plant diseases caused by fiongi. He ;uid<tthers are trying "to breed for resistance(0 key production constraints, especiallydiseases of widespread importance, andto definitely increase yield. This methodhelps resource-poor farmers take ad-vantage of improved cultivars, [while]minimizing the risk of spreading patho-

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In these test plots at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Chrispns OduoriAdt'ti is breeding for higher yield and resistance to the fungal ilisease neck blast.Finger millet is an important food crop because of its long-term storage capacity

and its high nutritive value, making it important in the diets of children andexpectant and breastfeeding mothers. Photograph: Joe DeVries.

Bananas.

In 1998, bananas reportedly providedmore than 23 percent of Africa's carbo-hydrate needs. Three types of Africanbananas are grown, derived from twospecies frotn Malaysia; they comprisediploid and triploid combinations ofthe original species. "Bananas arc anexceedingly difficult crop to breed,"IX'Vrics says, "so AGRA has lo be selec-tive in where it decides to deploy breed-ing as a strategy to assist Africa's bananafarmers." The diseases black leaf streak,or black sigaloka, and banana streakvirus are the major biotic .stresses. InUganda, the National AgriculturalResearch tlrgani/ation ha.s made someearly progress on breeding the liastAfrican highland banana with resistanceto black leaf streak disease. Additionally,varieties propagated by means of tissueculture are anticipated to greatly aid ba-nana breeding. However, the challengesul b.inanii tissue ctiliure's propensity forthe banana streak virus and the rela-tively steep price for micropropagatedplantlets must be surmounted.

gen populations." Currently, be says,"work is at the phase of conducting fieldtrials for the lines [246 in number] wehave so far established from our variousbreeding crosses using the conventionalbreeding methods. We are conductingparticipatory, variety selection trials withthe tanners so as to address the farmer re-quirements, and at the same time evalu-ating the lines for tbe various biotic andabiotic stresses."

In addition to outreach and breedingoperations, Nkalubo points out the sig-nificance of enhanced germplasm col-lection afforded by AGRA. "To a breeder,the most limiting factors are basicallygermplasm or source of new genes andfunds to enable one to play around withthese genes to produce desirable productsand technologies.... The fact that AGRAhas been able to provide funding to en-able me [to] manipulate the availablegermpiasm and genes to the benefit of theUganda farming community, and Africain general, is one step into the realizationof my dreams. For my work in Uganda,

the funds are being used to acquire andupgrade equipment for the screening ofanthracnose and also to collect moregermplasm."

The AGRA effort will allow numerousbreeders to address some of the most per-sistent crop problems in Africa. Cassava,which was introduced into Africa by thePortuguese more than 500 years ago, forexample, is especially Important becauseit grows in poor soils and across the con-tinent. Pointing to the many initiativesfor improving the crop, DeVries says thatcassava "is currently one of the most ex-citing crop breeding challenges in Africa,for a number of reasons. Firstly, it happensthat most ofthe major biotic constraintsthat seriously reduce cassava yields can bedealt with genetically through conven-tional breeding, that is, without having toventure outside the Manihot genome [thebase cassava genome]."

A recent collaborative effort betweenthe International Institute of TropicalAgriculture, headquartered in Nigeria,and the Colombian-based International

Center for Tropical Agriculture, whichbas amassed a large and varied germ-plasm collection of Latin American cas-sava, is working on cassiiva mosaic disease(GMD). CMD exists only in Africa andseriously afflicts cassava grown there. Thetwo institutes, with the aid of MAS, haveintroduced a dominant gene for resis-tance to CMD found in African cassavainto Latin American cultivars, says Toen-niessen, before their shipment to Africa.He added that increasing cassava bio-diversity in Africa by allowing greateruse of Latin American germplasm is asignificant benefit. "AGRA will fund na-tional breeding programs in Africa usingtbis increased biodiversity."

Another important crop plant, cow-pea, is an indigenous African legume thatgrows tliroughout Africa in difficult agri-cultural conditions, especially scmiaridregions. Cowpea is also considered animportant "insurance" crop, as it is har-ve.sted in otherwise nonharvest periods.It is also, DeVries says, "a crop generallygrown and marketed by women, so cow-

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pea embodies social equity value, as well."In Burkina Faso, breeders selecting forcowpea resistance to the weed Striga have"identified three genotypes of very dif-ferent genetic backgrounds that showimmunity to the parasite," he says. InUganda, AGRA is funding work at theNational Agricultural Research Organi-zation to breed and select plants for re-sistance to the aphid-borne mosaic virusthat afflicts cowjiea.

However, for cowpea, "insect resis-tance...has so far proven intractable," De-Vries says. The persistence of insectproblems has led some fo suggest trans-genics—the genetic modification of or-ganisms to carry genes from otherspecies—as a possibility for improvingcowpea. In general, however, African gov-ernments have yet to implement poli-cies for the release of genetically modifiedorganisms. In the meantime, AGRA con-centrates on technologies such as MASand tissue culture to improve cowpeaand other crops.

Other crops, such as maize, rice,sorghum, and banana, will receive breed-ing support from AGRA, as well. Formaize and sorghum, significant work hasalready been done on producing high-yield hybrids, while other efforts focus onthe weeds, pests, and pathogens that havediminished Africa's food supply.

Future investmentsand intimationsThe greening of African agriculturecomes from adding one improvementto another, from new breeding lines tonew policies that promote agroecologicalseed companies to innovations in farmer

participation. The future also dependson educational commitments, and AGRAis proactively supporting the training ofdiverse agricultural specialists in Africa."AGRA expects to support the training ofseveral hundred MS and PhD scientists,"Toenniessen said. "For example, theAfrican Center for Grop Improvement inSouth Africa and a similar program inGhana will train 120 PhD plant breeders.Other training programs will be in agron-omy, soil sciences, economics, business."

The new breeding efforts are also en-gendering a sense of optimism. "Whatmakes this such an exciting time for cropscientists and geneticists in Africa," De-Vries said, "is that there is so much yet tobe done." In the autumn of 2007, De-Vries traveled through East Africa, wherehe spoke with fellow scientists. "A virol-ogist in Tanzania was telling me abouthuge yield losses maize farmers experi-ence every year in the bike Victoria regionof the country due to maize streak virus,and that cassava farmers were sufferingsimilar yield losses from cassava mosaicdisease.... I know from experience inwestern Kenya that until the develop-ment of the new maize hybrids, maize,which looked very healthy up to aboutthe mid-grain-filling period in westernKenya, would suddenly begin to witherand turn yellow from foliar diseases....

"But now, you can tour westem Kenyaand find that the maize looks green andhealthy all the way through the season,and the yields, we hear, have improveddramatically. All that was achievedthrough breeding and seed supply. Weknow that fhe same thing can be done inthe Lake Victoria region of Tanzania.... It

Visit these Web sites formore information:

www.agra-alliance.org

w^nv.africancrops.net

wviw.iita.org

is just a question of putting in the fundsto run a breeding program focused oncontrolling those diseases and other fac-tors, and things can change.... We can doit in every situation In Africa where farm-ers are struggling for larger harvests tofeed fheir families."

Nkalubo expressed similar sentiments:"AGRA, knowing the way in which theAfrican communities work, is trying tofund and coordinate the different de-partments within the country, all work-ing for a common goal These includeeducation sectors, researchers, researchinstitutions, farmers, seed companies,agro-dealers, farming communities, [and]nongovernment organizations...withinAfrica. This approach I do find very goodand creative, and [ it] differs from earlierapproaches where only a few stakehold-ers are involved and left loopholes forfailure. With this kind of approach, 1 be-lieve the objectives of the African GreenRevolution have an 80 to 90 percentchance of being successful."

Richard J. Rlaiistcin (e-mail:richblausinndPhoimail.com) is an

environmental lawyer and freelancewriter based in Washington, DC.

doi:10.l64]/B580103Include this intbrmation when citing this material.

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