2.DuPont and CIMMYT Announce $1.3 Million Maize Collaboration for Africa
DuPont and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have announced a US$1.3 million program for collaboration on research, product development, and technical support in Africa. Researchers from CIMMYT and DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred will work over the next three years to develop novel traits in African crops (item 2). For more on DuPont's previous involvement in African crop projects see 'Biotech's deceptive fiction.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5823
EXTRACT: Either the Green Revolution's institutions don't work, or the Green Revolution itself doesn't work - or both. The Green Revolution did not "bypass" Africa. It failed. Because this new philanthropic effort ignores, misinterprets, and misrepresents the harsh lessons of the first Green Revolution's multiple failures, it will likely worsen the problem. (item 1)
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1.Press Release, October 20, 2006
NEW Report Critical of Gates/Rockefeller and FAO's "Green Revolution for Africa"
October, 20 2006, Oakland, CA: The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First, today released a report that is highly critical of the Rockefeller and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations' $150 million "Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa" (AGRA). The Food First Policy Brief is titled:
Ten Reasons Why the Rockefeller and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations' Alliance for Another Green Revolution Will Not Solve the Problems of Poverty and Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa
by Eric Holt-Gimenez, Ph.D., Miguel A. Altieri , Ph.D., and Peter Rosset, Ph.D.
To read the complete report, click on the following link: http://www.foodfirst.org/policybriefs
The authors-all distinguished experts on rural development-show how the recently announced $150 million "Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa" fails to take into account the failures of the original Green Revolution. The creators of AGRA promise to bring benefits to the African continent's impoverished farmers who-they claim-have until now been bypassed by the first Green Revolution. In what appeared to be an orchestrated move, one day after that announcement, Jacques Diouf, Director General of UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), called for support for a "second Green Revolution" to feed the world's growing population. UN boss Kofi Annan also weighed in to support the initiative.
The AGRA plan is remarkable given that over the last 20 years, the CGIAR-which brings together all the key Green Revolution research institutions-has invested 40-45% of their $350 million-a-year budget in Africa. If these public funds were not invested in a Green Revolution for Africa, then where were they spent? If they were spent on the Green Revolution, then why does Africa need another one? Either the Green Revolution's institutions don't work, or the Green Revolution itself doesn't work-or both. The Green Revolution did not "bypass" Africa. It failed. Because this new philanthropic effort ignores, misinterprets, and misrepresents the harsh lessons of the first Green Revolution's multiple failures, it will likely worsen the problem. The report discusses the following ten reasons why:
1. The Green Revolution actually deepens the divide between rich and poor farmers.
2. Over time, Green Revolution technologies degrade tropical agro-ecosystems and expose already vulnerable farmers to increased environmental risk.
3. The Green Revolution leads to the loss of agro-biodiversity, the basis for smallholder livelihood security and regional environmental sustainability.
4. Hunger is not primarily due to a lack of food, but because the hungry are too poor to buy the food that is available.
5. Without addressing structural inequities in the market and political systems, approaches relying on high input technological solutions fail.
6. The private sector alone will not solve the problems of production, marketing and distribution
7. Introduction of genetic engineering-the driving force behind AGRA initiative-will make smallholder systems more environmentally vulnerable in Sub-Saharan Africa.
8. The introduction of GE crops into smallholder agriculture will likely lead to the indebtedness of these farmers.
9. AGRA's assertion that "There Is No Alternative" (TINA) ignores the many successful agroecological and non-corporate approaches to agricultural development that have grown in the wake of the Green Revolution's failures.
10. AGRA's "alliance" does not place smallholder farmers-the principal actors in agricultural improvement-in the driver's seat. In fact, peasant organizations have already put forward a more coherent alternative, called "food sovereignty," which more accurately addresses the underlying causes of rural poverty and hunger in Africa and other regions of the world.
To read the complete report, click on the following link: http://www.foodfirst.org/policybriefs
To arrange interviews with the authors, please contact: Eric Holt Gimenez This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Peter Rosset This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Miguel Altieri This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Contact: Eric Holt Gimenez at 510-654-4400 ext 227 or cell at 202-288-8699
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DuPont and CIMMYT Announce $1.3 Million Maize Collaboration For Africa
Public-Private Partnership to Speed Product Development
http://onlinepressroom.net/DuPont/NewsReleases/
DES MOINES, IA, October 19, 2006 - DuPont and the global wheat and maize improvement center, CIMMYT , today announced a $1.3 million research, product development and technical support collaboration for Africa.
Over the next three years researchers at DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. , and CIMMYT will work together to develop novel traits to improve production agriculture and address food challenges in developing countries globally.
Africa, where an estimated 200 million people are undernourished and 33 million children suffer from famine, is a primary target for this work. The initial research projects will focus on maize nitrogen utilization to increase and stabilize maize yields with subsequent research projects on drought tolerance, Striga tolerance and protein enhancement.
"Production agriculture improvements are the first steps to solving economic and health problems in Africa," said Masa Iwanaga, CIMMYT director general. "With the right products for the diverse African growing environments, there is enormous potential to turn the existing situation around."
The collaboration will help bring crop solutions to Africa sooner.
"Together we can do much more for Africa and other developing countries than either of us could have done on our own," said William S. Niebur , vice president, DuPont Crop Genetics Research & Development. "CIMMYT has a fantastic track record of putting science to work for the people who need it most. Combined with our cutting-edge technology and know how, we’re going to make significant progress in a relatively short time."
Global Importance of Strong Plant Breeding Activity
Numerous studies have shown agriculture to be the most effective driver of growth in the world’s poorest countries. Raising agricultural productivity is essential for reducing rural poverty and enhancing food security. Few countries have developed diversified economies without first achieving growth in agriculture.
Maize breeding and agriculture in developing nations is, at best, in a similar condition to that of the U.S. during the 1920s-1940s when growers were averaging approximately two to three tons per hectare, said Iwanaga.
"Most of the world’s poor rely on agriculture for income and sustenance," said Iwanaga. "Globally, there is enough food for everyone. However, locally, hundreds of millions of people lack the resources to grow or buy enough food. Many cannot grow crops in environmentally safe ways.!
This reality couldn't be more evident than in Africa. Agricultural production for the continent is increasing at slightly more than 2 percent per year, while the annual population increase is more than 3 percent annually. Farming is becoming simultaneously less productive and more damaging to natural resource biodiversity as most production increases have come from taking more land into cultivation. The whole continent of Africa currently produces less maize than the state of Iowa1.
African soils have declined in fertility over the past 30 years because the ground has been repeatedly farmed without the adequate replacement of plant nutrients. Farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa apply 10 to 15 times less nitrogen fertilizer to crops than their counterparts in developed countries. Fertilizer costs can be as much as three to five times higher than those seen in the United States or Europe, which is a barrier to cash strapped farmers. African average maize yields continue at around the same low levels they have been for at least 30 years. At the 2006 African Fertilizer Summit in Abuja, African Heads of State reiterated that solving fertility challenges is the catalyst needed for an African Green Revolution.
Agricultural Solutions
The collaboration between CIMMYT and Pioneer brings together the latest tools, technologies and insights to develop better maize hybrids and critical traits that will help growers combat environmental challenges, improve the protein quality in maize as well as open new avenues for income generation.
"We have made and continue to make incredible gains through genetics and plant breeding, combined with new molecular approaches. With the new tools, technologies and information available today, this important public private partnership will achieve increased productivity and better products for global maize farmers," said Niebur.
The collaboration's goal is to develop maize hybrids that offer significantly increased yields in nitrogen stressed situations in Africa. While these hybrids will not eliminate the need for fertilizer entirely, they have the potential to significantly improve productivity in fertility stressed areas, such as those typically found in marginalized subsistence farming areas. Nitrogen use efficiency screening trials were planted in Africa by CIMMYT in 2005 and will continue over the next three years.
CIMMYT, (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo) the international maize and wheat improvement center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), is an internationally funded, not-for-profit organization with headquarters in Mexico that conducts research and training related to maize and wheat throughout the developing world. CIMMYT works to create, share, and use knowledge and technologies to increase food security, improve the productivity and profitability of farming systems, and sustain natural resources.
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., a subsidiary of DuPont, is the world's leading source of customized solutions for farmers, livestock producers and grain and oilseed processors. With headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, Pioneer provides access to advanced plant genetics, crop protection solutions and quality crop systems to customers in nearly 70 countries.
DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.
10/19/06
1 Africa’s Emerging Maize Revolution, Derek Byerlee and Carl K. Eicher, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 1997.