This paper introduces a special issue that critically examines the dominant technocratic, neoliberal agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa. We briefly review the history of African agricultural and food security policy in the post-colonial period in order to contextualise the productionist approach embedded in the New Green Revolution for Africa, a strategy comprising the use of hybrid seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides to boost crop production. This approach is underpinned by a new and unprecedented level of public-private partnerships as donors actively work to promote the private sector and build links between African farmers, input suppliers, agro-dealers, agro-processors, and retailers. On the consumer end, increased supermarket penetration into poorer neighbourhoods is proffered as a solution to urban food insecurity. The papers in the special issue complicate understandings of this new approach and raise serious questions about its effectiveness as a strategy for increasing food production and alleviating hunger across the continent.

The adoption of Genetically Modified (GM) cotton in South Africa's Makhathini Flats in 1998 was heralded as a case in which agricultural biotechnology could benefit smallholder farmers, and a model for the rest of the continent to follow. Using historical, political economic and ethnographic data, we find the initial enthusiasm around GM technology to be misguided. We argue that Makhathini's structured institutional framework privileges adopters of GM technologies through access to credit and markets. The adoption of GM cotton is symptomatic not of farmers’ endorsement of GM technology, but a sign of the profound lack of choice facing them in the region.

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CAN GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) CROPS help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa? To date, only two GM cropsinsect-resistant forms of cotton and maizehave made it into the hands of African farmers. Of these, GM cotton has the longest empirical track record, having been the first GM crop ever introduced in Africa, and the only one that has been grown in multiple countries-first South Africa, then Burkina Faso. 1 The performance of this crop has received intense scrutiny, as it offers the best indication of how the suite of other GM crops slated for commercial approval may perform across the continent. This briefing reviews the experiences of South African farmers with GM cotton, which has emerged as the crucial precedent highlighting the value of GM crops for poor farmers. It then turns to the case of Burkina Faso, which became the showcase for how GM crops can benefit smallholder African farmers. However, as shown here, Burkina Faso has begun a complete phaseout of GM cotton, citing the inferior lint quality of the GM cultivars as the reason for abandoning its cultivation. Burkina Faso's phase-out could stall or even end negotiations to adopt GM cotton in other Francophone African countries with similar concerns over cotton quality. More generally, Burkina Faso's reversal could undermine public trust in GM crops across the continent at a time when many African countries are grappling with the politicized and polarized debate over whether to adopt these new breeding technologies. We argue that the retreat of Burkina Faso, one of the most prominent and

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