This post is written by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) team.

USAID and Feed the Future would like to welcome you to Agricultural Transformation Month on Agrilinks!

Transforming agriculture by making the sector more productive and efficient is key to achieving lasting, inclusive economic growth. Through evidence-based policies, new technologies and improved practices, agricultural transformation helps drive increased total factor productivity and more efficient use of inputs and resources. In turn, this process leads to expanded participation in markets, greater access to and affordability of nutritious food, improved resilience and broader availability of jobs. 

A more productive and efficient food system spurs inclusive economic growth that benefits low-income groups in particular, thus helping countries to break the cycle of extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition for broad segments of the population. In an April 2021 report commissioned by the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), agricultural transformation was described as:

Robust agricultural growth that stimulates faster output and employment growth in other sectors. Improvement to agricultural productivity releases resources to other sectors, raises the nutritional status of workers, lowers the costs of raw materials for industry, earns foreign exchange and increases the demand for other sectors’ outputs. 

Over the next month, Agrilinks will feature stories of agricultural transformation across the world. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) will showcase several highlights of their work to advance systemic, transformational change that strengthens African food security and increases incomes for 30 million farmers.

Two webinars will also be featured: 

• July 15: Crops to End Hunger: Accelerating Seed Delivery through Sustainable Seed Systems.
• August 4: Capstone webinar on agricultural transformations hosted by AGRA. Opening remarks will be provided by Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President of AGRA and the United Nations (UN) secretary-general's special envoy to the 2021 Food Systems Summit

We invite you to join in these conversations throughout the month by submitting your own posts, commenting and engaging with our stories and actively participating in this month’s activities.