Experts begin a review of Manual on design of African Green Revoultion
By Yinka Adeyemi, Communication Officer, ECA
16 November 2004

About 25 experts from 15 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America will today in Addis Ababa begin an intense three-day review of a landmark design and training manual on the principles, methodology and strategy for promoting an African Green Revolution.

The 91-page Manual was produced by the Sustainable Development Division (SDD) of the Economic Commission for Africa.

The Manual aims to identify the core building blocks and methods for the designing an African Green Revolution, identify the prime movers and leverage factors that must go into the design and propose a strategy for African countries to design and cause a Green Revolution, said Josue Dione, the Director of SDD.

According to the Manual, an African Green Revolution has four major components - Biological/technological; Crop-livestock integration; Organic/inorganic chemical fertilizers and Biophysical technologies, such as irrigation.

The Manual also proposes a sequence of seven strategic initiatives necessary to cause a Green Revolution in any African country.

It says there must be an interface between key actors/stakeholders and that the Green Revolution design team - made up of an Ecologist, Sociologist, Agricultural Economists, Agronomist, Veterinary Nutritionist, Engineer, Breeder, Pathologist and Policy Analyst - should begin with pilot areas in order to tune up the farmer communities.

The biological/biotechnological research teams should generate core technological ingredients, using simple to advanced applications, while the Design team shoul design the principal components of the green revolution, says the Manual.

It also calls for on-farm research programme to test the technologies, mobilization of all stakeholders and launching of Green Revolution plans.

To download the Manual, please click here