If sub-Saharan Africa is to benefit from advances in agricultural productivity in the 21st century, investments in the so-called “orphan crops” – sweet potato, cassava, and millet, for example – will be crucial for strengthening the poorest farmers’ livelihoods and improving nutrition.
The 1960s Green Revolution, which averted famine in India and Latin America through the deployment of high-yield crop varieties, is often hailed as one of the greatest humanitarian achievements of the 20th century. Yet this effort focused largely on globally traded staples, neglecting locally important crops. The outcome partly explains today’s global malnutrition crisis. The countries reached by the Green Revolution became massive producers of rice, wheat, or maize, but at the expense of the crop diversity necessary for well-rounded diets.
If sub-Saharan Africa is to benefit from advances in agricultural productivity in the 21st century, investments in the so-called “orphan crops” – sweet potato, cassava, and millet, for example – will be crucial for strengthening the poorest farmers’ livelihoods and improving nutrition.
The 1960s Green Revolution, which averted famine in India and Latin America through the deployment of high-yield crop varieties, is often hailed as one of the greatest humanitarian achievements of the 20th century. Yet this effort focused largely on globally traded staples, neglecting locally important crops. The outcome partly explains today’s global malnutrition crisis. The countries reached by the Green Revolution became massive producers of rice, wheat, or maize, but at the expense of the crop diversity necessary for well-rounded diets.
See my Opinion article in the Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0806/How-to-transform-…
Daniel Bornstein, Dartmouth College