NGO rejects report findings on poverty

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has dismissed a report by researchers from America’s Tufts University as inaccurate and unfounded.
The report titled False Promises of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, alleges that AGRA has failed the “continent’s fight against hunger, poverty and malnutrition”.

AGRA, however, described the report as unprofessional, as it did not follow any known research protocols. It said neither its key officers, country officers nor partners were consulted during the purported research.

The researchers said they relied on national-level data for agricultural productivity, poverty, hunger and malnutrition to assess progress and reach the conclusions.

Uganda
Uganda is one of the 11 priority countries where AGRA operates with key activities in promoting quality seeds, fertiliser use, partnerships and market linkages for those in the agriculture value chain.

Dr John Jagwe, the country manager for AGRA, described the report as a ploy by selfish individuals to fight AGRA. He said there is nothing Ugandans benefit from such malicious reports.

“That report is an attack against AGRA and we are preparing to fight back. You do not just wake up and start fighting someone’s organisation. There are so many falsehoods in the report. You cannot say that in Uganda, AGRA put $126 billion when it did not,” he said.

In a statement by the country office, the organisation said AGRA’s current portfolio in Uganda is in the areas of policy and building state capability, farmers systems and building strategic partnerships.

“In the latter line of work, AGRA has supported the development of a novel Agricultural Finance policy to the tune of $0.24 million (Shs0.9 billion). The policy, currently at Cabinet level, has registered early wins such as increase in agricultural lending from less than 11 per cent in 2018 to 28 per cent in 2019,” the organisation stated.

AGRA is also supporting the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries on seed inspection and certification with a grant of $0.93 million (Shs3.3 billion) and this will help improve quality of seed hence benefiting approximately 150,000 small holder farmers who have long suffered with seed quality issues.

The Tufts researchers said AGRA had promised to double yields and incomes for 30 million farming households while cutting food insecurity to half in 20 African countries by 2020.
“On the contrary, in countries in which AGRA operates, there has been a 30 per cent increase in the number of people suffering hunger, a condition affecting 130 million people in the 13 AGRA focus countries,” the report reads in part.

No improvement
The report says there was either no significant improvement in the production of key crops, or there was a decline in production, for countries where AGRA is operating.

“There was little evidence that productivity has increased by any significant amount. For staple crops, yields only rose by 18 per cent on average in AGRA countries in twelve years compared to 17 per cent in the same period before AGRA,” the report reads.

However, in its statement rebutting the claims, AGRA said it was founded upon an initiative by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in response to what he and other African leaders saw as the need for an African institution to drive a ‘uniquely African’ green revolution, distinct from other ‘green revolutions’ in Asia, for example.

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