In a hard-hitting opinion piece in The Hill, faith leaders added their compelling voices to the chorus calling on U.S. Congress to stop funding the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Their call comes as Congress is reauthorizing funding for the Global Food Security Act, which has provided funding to AGRA through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future program.

“For years, African smallholder farmers have been the supposed beneficiaries of top-down initiatives such as AGRA, which promote the use of commercial seeds and fertilizers and changes in government policies that recent studies show are harming poor farmers and the environment,” write Francesca de Gasparis of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) and Fletcher Harper of the U.S.-based GreenFaith organization.

They call out USAID for dismissing findings from its own donor-commissioned evaluation that AGRA is failing to significantly improve yields, incomes, or food security.