“Money Flows: what is holding back investment in agroecological research for Africa?”, which has analysed the all-important financial flows in food system research that go to sub-Saharan Africa, shows that money flows in Africa’s agricultural development sector are mainly reinforcing damaging industrial models. Despite commitments in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme to invest more than one per cent of agricultural GDP in research, investments in agricultural research by governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have fallen significantly with the overall investment ratio dropping below 0.5 per cent in 2010-2014. More than 70 per cent of Kenyan research institutes’ projects focused on industrial agriculture, with only 13 per cent being agroecological. At $274 million (Sh27 billion) a year, Kenya’s investment in public agricultural research is the third-highest in Africa. A fraction of UK and Belgian development aid, and minimal US agricultural research funding, also goes to agroecology.

Source: Daily Nation June 18, 2020 21:00 UTC