Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the issues emerging from USAID supported research in crops intensification and post harvest loss programs in Ethiopia, Burkino Faso, Senegal, Tanzania, and Ghana. The key issues are around gender analysis and the targeting of women farmers; sustainability and local ownership.

Paper long abstract:

Since the second green revolution from the mid 2000s the main focus was to address the sectors the first Green Revolution was not successful in. These have been (among others) in semi-arid crop systems, small scale producers, and a focus on dryland African production systems. Emerging issues are the inclusion of women farmers in technological research as they increasingly the users of technology in marginal local agriculture sectors with high rates of men's migration. Second, is the issue of the sustainability of new technologies and practices that avoids elite capture that bedevilled the first Green Revolution. Finally, is the issue of local design, ownership, and control of these technologies in the context of competing ideologies as to what economic development more broadly, and agricultural development in particular, should look like. On the one hand is Western neo-liberalism and on the other hand China's state led infrastructure development for rapid industrial growth. Where do poor marginal farms sit in these scenarios?

This paper emerges from the research the author is undertaking with the Feed the Future labs at Kansas State University as part of a Fulbright fellowship in early 2018. This work focuses on gender integration in these technology based research projects but also how to take the lessons learnt from the 'first' Green Revolution projects see if these lessons have been learnt or if 'Green Revolution' approaches are inherently problematic.