Modernising agriculture through a 'new' green revolution

Subtitle:the limits of the crop intensification programme in Rwanda

Over the past decade, African agriculture sectors have been the object of numerous initiatives advancing a new Green Revolution for the continent. The low productivity of African smallholders is attributed to the low use of modern, improved agricultural inputs. In short, African countries are expected to catch up with the Green Revolution in other parts of the world. This paper is a contribution to the debate on the new African Green Revolution. We analyse the Rwandan Crop Intensification Programme (CIP) as a case study of the application of the African Green Revolution model. The paper is based on research at the macro, meso and micro levels. We argue that the CIP fails to draw lessons from previous Green Revolution experiences in terms of its effects on social differentiation, on ecological sustainability, and on knowledge exchange and creation.

Publication year:2016

Keywords:A1 Journal article

BOF-keylabel:yes

BOF-publication weight:1

CSS-citation score:2

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open