Edited by scholar-activist Rachel Wynberg, African Perspectives on Agroecology: Why farmer-led seed and knowledge systems matter is now freely available online. The widely endorsed book includes a chapter by the African Centre for Biodiversity’s Stephen Greenberg on corporate expansion in African seed systems: implications for agricultural biodiversity and food sovereignty.

African Perspectives on Agroecology includes the voices of 33 farmers, activists, scientists, scholars and policymakers who share their dynamic vision of a world where agriculture is productive, diverse and sustainable; where different ways of seeing and knowing are respected; and where seed and food systems are in the hands of farmers and local communities.

“Beyond food, seed is at the heart of rich and varied cultures in Africa,” writes Wynberg, “accompanying brides on their nuptial journeys, delivering ancestral blessings for good fortune, and enabling the bonds for greater social cohesion and harmony.

“But seed is under siege. As the world’s food and agricultural systems become increasingly industrialized, homogenized, and privatized, seed has become something of a poster child for the struggles involved.”

Other contributing authors include Million Belay, coordinator at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty for Africa; Biowatch advocacy and research coordinator Vanessa Black; Esther Lupafya, project director and gender coordinator at Soils, Food and Healthy Communities in Malawi; and Mugove Walter Nyika, founding coordinator of the Regional Schools and Colleges Permaculture Programme.

African Perspectives on Agroecology also features a forward by UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri.

Read the ebook or download the pdf for free here.

Click here to read our briefing paper Cultivating diversity for a just agroecological transition in Africa to find out more about the inextricable link between agricultural biodiversity, agroecology, climate change, and biodiversity.