AGRICULTURAL INTENSIFICATION: FEEDING OURSELVES AND SUSTAINING AFRICA'S LAND RESOURCES IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

The Green revolution provided humanity a tool to ameliorate the impact of impending global hunger and poverty for a brief period. Inequities in the distribution of the green revolution's benefits reflected intrinsic and widening disparities between people of the world at global, national, community and family level, and also even by gender. Current population trends are contributing to a growing escalation in global poverty and hunger that threaten to wipe out the current global food surplus. In sub-Saharan Africa, the depth of poverty and hunger is already great and environmental degradation is further reducing the productive resource capacity. A new vision of humanity's welfare is that our common future demands a second green revolution that will redress inequities in distribution of the benefits of agricultural intensification in favor of the rural poor. Furthermore, future gains in food security should not be achieved at the expense of environmental conservation. A third and more difficult challenge for future advances in agricultural innovation is that it must also encompass much broader objectives for rural development and address the full scope of rural livelihood opportunities provided by increased urban migration. Measures needed to ensure future food security demand clear, effective and synchronized strategies for an accelerated intensification of agriculture and hence economic growth. This will require a climate of greater political stability and fundamental social change. Such strategies must target poverty as a root cause of hunger and low development of rural economies. Above all such strategies must create the necessary framework for broader application of productivity-enhancing technologies as the engines for sustainable economic growth. Greater progress and efficiency can be achieved through more appropriate institutional approaches that permit greater flexibility and collaboration between existing institutions. Alternatively, new institutions that provide a shift in the focus for development can be created. However, such institutions must also permit a broader and well-synchronized approach that generates strong synergies between countries and existing institutions.