Green revolution in sub-Saharan Africa - Implications of imposed innovation for the wellbeing of rural smallholders

Abstract

Green Revolution policies are again being pursued to drive agricultural growth and reduce poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. However conditions have changed since the well-documented successes of the 1960s and 1970s benefitted smallholders in southern Asia and beyond. We argue that under contemporary constraints the mechanisms for achieving improvements in the lives of smallholder farmers through such policies are unclear and that both policy rationale and means of governing agricultural innovation are crucial for pro-poor impacts. This research was supported by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme