Terry Leahy 2015 (first written 2011)
Below is the opening paragraphs for “A Green Revolution for the Eastern Cape?” by Terry Leahy.
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In 2010, I attended a conference on rural development hosted by Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha, Eastern Cape South Africa. They were working on developing a new model for their faculty of agriculture and rural development. As part of this they had brought consultants from a number of other countries. Foremost among these were three experts from the Punjab in India who had been active in the “Green Revolution” in that country. This change had totally transformed the Punjab and seriously improved the life chances of the farmers in this province. The Punjab had become a very productive land, exporting food all over India.
The strategy had been based on the new green revolution crops that multiplied the productivity of rice and wheat production, on the massive use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides and on drawing up irrigation water from an artesian basin. Socially, the strategy had been premised upon a land redistribution that restricted land ownership to 17 acres per household. The other aspect was the heavy involvement of the university in extension work with farmers. The farmers had been encouraged to come to the university for training and for large agricultural festivals, where the latest technologies were displayed. There was also a heavy use of government subsidy. Government had assisted farmers with boreholes and pumps, with tractors and with improved high yielding varieties.
The question posed by their visit was how the Eastern Cape could learn from the Punjab model. From the point of view of Walter Sisulu university, how could the university make use of its capacity as a research organisation to help the poor rural villagers of the Eastern Cape to become successful commercial farmers? I had a few problems with this concept and attempted to explain my concerns in one of the plenary sessions, later drafting up this paper. What I do here is to consider the Punjab model and what it might mean to apply it to the Eastern Cape.
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