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In 2017, the ACB lodged legal proceedings with the High Court to review and overturn the decisions of the Executive Council: GMO Act, the GMO Appeal Board, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, approving Monsanto/Bayer’s genetically modified drought-tolerant maize variety MON 86470 for commercial cultivation. After protracted five years, the court hearing is 7–8 February.

About the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB)

The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is a research and advocacy organisation working towards food sovereignty and agroecology in Africa, with a focus on biosafety, seed systems and agricultural biodiversity. We are committed to dismantling inequalities and resisting corporate-industrial expansion in Africa’s food and agriculture systems.

Our Focus Areas

GM & Biosafety
Ac Bio Home Biosafety

Within networks of partner organisations we work towards the building of public awareness and capacity to respond to, and resist, the uptake and/or further expansion of first and now second GM technologies, such as gene drives or genome editing, in Africa.

Seed Sovereignty
Ac Bio Home Seeds

ACB’s seed sovereignty work seeks to resist commercial seed laws and policies that threaten smallholder farmers’ critical role in maintaining, adapting and reproducing agricultural biodiversity, and farmers’ rights associated with recognition of this role.

Corporate Expansion
Ac Bio Home Corporate

The ACB monitors and contests corporate expansion by conducting research and analysis, sharing information, and working with networks to build popular resistance, with a focus on agricultural input supply (seed, fertiliser, pesticides).

Our Approach

We have a long and respected track record of opposing the aggressive push of the Green Revolution on the African continent, and the national and regional institutional architecture driving this.

At the same time, we work with partners to deepen a shared understanding of, and realise transitions to, agroecological farming practices that provide an alternative to the corporate capture of African seed and food systems.

Trending

5 Dec 2022

The Africa we want?

A NEO-IMPERIALIST FOOD REGIME REINFORCED BY AGENDA 2063, THE UNFCCC, AND THE CBD As the Convention on Biodiversity Conservation’s (CBD) fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP 15) is about to begin, where a new deal on biodiversity, the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) will be finalised and adopted, African CSOs are calling for the transition away […]

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10 May 2023

NO TO GM WHEAT IN SOUTH AFRICA!

 We call on the government to reverse approval of GM wheat into our country Organisations, please sign on! We are reaching out to organisation to support our submission to the South African Biosafety authorities, the Executive Council (EC): GMO Act, to review and reassess its decision to grant approval for the importation into South Africa […]

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3 Apr 2023

REFLEXIONS DES AGRICULTEURS ZIMBABWEENS SUR LA FOIRE AUX SEMENCES PAYSANNES D’AFRIQUE DE L’OUESTS...

La 7e foire annuelle aux semences paysannes d’Afrique de l’Ouest, organisée par le Comité ouest-africain de semences paysannes (COASP), s’est tenue à Zoungbonou, au Bénin, du 9 au 11 mars 2023. Elle a rassemblé 75 exposants de 25 pays, principalement de la communauté ouest-africaine, mais aussi des agriculteurs d’Afrique de l’Est, des représentants du gouvernement […]

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