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The China MonitorJune 2008Policy WatchCan China Help Push for a Green Revolution inAfrica?By Luís Mah and Sylvia CroeseThe recent UN Food and Agriculture Organization Summit in Rome concludedwith the adoption of a Declaration calling on the international community’scollective action to increase aid for developing countries, in particular the leastdeveloped countries and those that have been most negatively affected byhigh food prices.“There is an urgent need to help developing countries and countries intransition expand agriculture and food production, and to increase investmentin agriculture, agribusiness and rural development, from both public and privatesources”, according to the Declaration. This was no more than a recognition ofthe food crisis we are currently facing. Yet, it has also opened the door for apotential long-term goal in Africa: a new green revolution.Tackling the global food crisisThere is an urgent need tohelp developing countriesand countries in transitionexpand agriculture and foodproduction, and to increaseinvestment in agriculture,agribusiness and ruraldevelopment.Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, probably helped triggered thisdebate when, on the eve of the Summit, he offered in the Financial Times (30May 2008) several proposals to tackle the global food crisis. Among them wasthe need for seeds and fertilizers especially for smallholders, the doubling ofthe yearly budget of the Consultative Group on International AgriculturalResearch (CGIAR) and more investment in agribusiness to “tap the privatesector’s ability to work across the value chain”.While recognising that to improve agriculture productivity there needs to bestrong investment, the truth is that this emerges after two decades in whichthere has been a significant fall in aid and public expenditure in agriculture.The share of development aid for agriculture decreased from 17% in the early1980s to around 3% in 2005, with a decline of 35% in the same period for Sub-Saharan Africa.On the other side, and according to figures from the International Food PolicyResearch Institute, in 17 African countries the percentage of public expenditureon the sector fell from 6.5% to 4.5% during the same period. This is a figurewell below the 10% commitment made by the heads of state of Africa.4© Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Stellenbosch; All Rights Reserved.