ACCRA, Ghana (DTN) -- The World Food Prize Foundation has awarded its Norman Borlaug Medallion to former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who now heads the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a foundation-funded effort to help small farmers increase their productivity and well being.

Kenneth Quinn, a former U.S. ambassador who is president of the Des Moines-based World Food Prize Foundation, presented the award to Annan last Thursday at the African Green Revolution Forum, which brought government, private business and foundation leaders here to discuss the future of African agriculture in Ghana, which is Annan's native country.

On Friday, Quinn also presided over a discussion of the legacy of Borlaug, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 after his seed research led to the Green Revolution in India and who is credited with saving millions of lives. Borlaug later founded the World Food Prize. He died last year at age 95.

"Over the past decade, no one has done more than Kofi Annan to bring attention to the critical issue of global food security and nutrition around the world nor in fulfilling Norman Borlaug's dream of bringing the Green Revolution to Africa," Quinn said at the ceremony at a convention center in the capital of this West African country.

As U.N. secretary general, Annan laid out the Millennium Development Goals, a strategy to meet the needs of the world's poorest people by 2015, including eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. Under the MDG, as they are known, the U.N. and its member countries hope by 2015 to halve the number of people who suffered from hunger in 1990.

In 2001, Annan and the United Nations received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. Annan is not without controversy, however. The commission headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker that investigated the handling of the U.N. Oil for Food Program that was supposed to use Iraqi oil money to benefit the people of Iraq, criticized Annan for not cleaning up the corruption in that program, but did not implicate him personally.

Annan said it was "a great honor" to receive the award in his native country. He praised Ghana for making "great strides" in helping farmers," but added, "We have left farmers to sink or swim without help for too long. After decades of neglect, agriculture has returned to the development agenda. Now it is time to bring together the many players -- from farmers to CEOs -- to achieve rapid, large-scale results that will put an end to hunger and poverty."

In a keynote speech, Annan noted that the challenges facing African farmers are "systemic -- from poor soils and seeds, to lack of finance and markets, and weak policy support. And these systemic challenges are compounded by the reality of climate change, of threats to biodiversity and to the natural resources that support life.

"But if the challenges are systemic, so, too, are the solutions. They involve fundamental changes in government priorities and policies; a strengthening of food value chains; development of Africa's private sector; the creation of vibrant new partnerships; and an alignment of international aid with Africa's priorities. All of this must empower Africa's smallholder farmers, the majority of whom are women. They are the people who grow our food. Transformative change will enable them to leave behind subsistence farming, to run their farms as businesses, and to market their surpluses," Annan said.

One of the major players in attempting to address these problems is Agra, which is funded largely by the Rockefeller Foundation, the original sponsor of Borlaug's work, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

At a session on Borlaug's legacy, Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, said that Borlaug had told him he did not want to find 20 heads of state to be interested in his work, but two to actually do a green revolution in Africa.

A series of speakers noted that even though Borlaug was noted for his wheat seed research, he recognized that other factors are key to farmers' success and are needed in Africa.

"Norm would say a [seed] variety can help, but fertilizer is the fuel" of farming, said Christopher Doswell, executive director of the Sasakawa Africa Association, which funded Borlaug's work in Africa.

Borlaug would say, "'We need many more scientists in Africa,'" said Gary Toenniessen, a managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation, which paid for Borlaug's work on wheat that was conducted in Mexico and used in India.

But the limits of Borlaug's work did not go unnoticed at the conference. At a session on the African agenda on climate change, Kwesi Attah-Krah of Bioversity, a Rome-based group, noted that the Green Revolution in India had been criticized for excessive irrigation and loss of genetic diversity in crops.

Although other speakers said the political will needed to achieve a truly Green Revolution in Africa, Attah-Krah said, "Political will is adequate, but it has to be faced with reality. We need political bravery. This is not one size fits all. Have we done enough thinking on sustainability?"

(CC/AG)

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