Beginning in 2021, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and a coalition of some 200 organizations publicly called on the Gates Foundation and other donors to stop funding the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, arguing it pushed expensive commercial seeds and synthetic fertilizer that trapped smallholder farmers in debt while failing to cut hunger. The campaigners pointed to an independent evaluation that, they said, confirmed AGRA had fallen short of its goals, and urged a shift toward agroecology. The Gates Foundation defended AGRA's work and continued its support. The campaign marked an unusually direct revolt by African civil society against one of Gates's signature development programs.