Latest Resources
30 October 2024
International Farmer Seeds Gathering 2024
ACB executive director Mariam Mayet and research and advocacy officer Sabrina Masinjila recently participated in the fourth edition of the International Farmer Seeds Gathering, this year held in Antibes, France. Co-organised by Reseau Semences Paysannes, SOL and the Maison des Semences Maralpines in collaboration with the European network Let’s Liberate Diversity!, the gathering was a […]
30 January 2024
No to GM wheat!
Food sovereignty alliance from Latin America, Africa, and Asia approaches seven UN Special Rapporteurs for urgent intervention to block cultivation and trade of GM wheat HB4 To date over 100 organisations endorse this submission. Please note the deadline for endorsements is Wednesday 15 February. PRESS RELEASE 30 January 2024 On 26 January 2024, a submission […]
20 October 2022
Global Biodiversity Framework stuck in a paradigm of catastrophic growth: what future for Africa?
A series on the GBF by Linzi Lewis and Mariam Mayet As part of a series of briefings by the African Centre for Biodiversity in the lead up to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to be held in December in Montreal 2022, this briefing examines the contradictory nature […]
14 April 2022
International day of Peasants’ Struggles 17 April 2022 – UN expert applauds vital rol...
GENEVA (14 April 2022) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, draws attention to the struggles of peasants and others which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic alongside the rise of extrajudicial violence against peasants and armed conflicts around the world. On the International Day of Peasants’ Struggles, he […]
2 June 2020
Trends in extraction of biodiversity and genetic resources in east and southern Africa
Human health and wellbeing at great risk unless biodiversity and genetic resources extraction in Africa is halted “We need more genetic diversity, not less, and we need to vigorously defend genetic diversity as a common good, not something that can be extracted and privately profited from.” The ACB has collaborated with the Regional Network for […]
20 April 2020
COVID-19: Access to medicine & implications for Africa
ACB brings you a new discussion paper Passer à la version française Clique aqui para a versão portuguesa Dear Friends and Colleagues, Expeditious and affordable access to medicines and other healthcare items will be critical to reducing the toll of COVID-19 in Africa. But if nothing is done to compel corporations to make their patents […]
6 November 2019
Changing the discourse, policy and practice in farmer seed systems in Africa
The ACB is excited to share this new briefing paper (see below for English, French and Portuguese versions), highlighting key issues relating to recognition and support for farmer seed systems in Africa and beyond. Farmers’ seed constitutes the majority of seed used and exchanged. Crops produced from this seed contribute substantially to food and nutrition […]
18 June 2018
Agroecology points the way towards resilience against climate change
This week the water-stressed city of Cape Town hosts the bi-annual Adaptation Futures conference, where scientists, business leaders, and practitioners from the world of development and agriculture will come together to engage in ‘dialogues for solutions’ to the multifarious problems wrought by our rapidly changing climate. As actors with different perspectives design modes of collaboration, […]
31 May 2018
Participatory Plant Breeding and Smallholder Farmers
The National Seed Dialogue and Celebration was hosted by the African Centre for Biodiversity at Constitution Hill in December 2017. The third video in this series, Participatory Plant Breeding and Smallholder Farmers looked at issues of smallholder farmers & seed breeding/crop improvement and the potential roles of smallholder farmers in these processes were discussed. Since […]
1 March 2018
A review of participatory plant breeding and lessons for African seed and food sovereignty movements
There is growing awareness of the unique and important role smallholder farmers around the world play in conserving, using and enhancing biodiversity. Conventional breeding has created a separation between farmers and specialised breeders. Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is a field of action developed over the past 25-30 years to overcome this separation, and reunite farmers […]