Latest Resources
9 November 2015
Which way forward for Zambia’s smallholder farmers: Green Revolution input subsidies or agroecology?
In this report, we provide a critique of the Green Revolution Farmer Input Subsidy project in Zambia, looking at its impacts particularly for small holder farmers and their seed systems.
6 July 2015
GM and seed industry eye Africa’s lucrative cowpea seed markets: The political economy of cowpea ...
The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has today released a new report titled, GM and seed industry eye Africa’s lucrative cowpea seed markets: The political economy of cowpea in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Malawi. The report shows a strong interest by the seed industry in commercialising cowpea seed production and distribution in West Africa, […]
11 June 2015
Cottoning onto the lie: GM cotton will harm not help small farmers in Africa
After five seasons of genetically modified (GM) cotton cultivation in Burkina Faso farmers are denouncing their contracts with Monsanto and cotton stakeholders are discussing compensation for losses incurred since 2008 due to low yields and low quality fibre. Many other African governments are poised to follow suit but should note how GM cotton has impoverished […]
4 May 2015
Gates and Monsanto’s Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project
In this report, the ACB interrogates the Gates Foundation and Monsanto’s Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project and exposes it to be nothing more than corporate ‘green washing’, designed to ensnare small holder farmers into adopting hybrid and GM maize in order to benefit seed and agro-chemical companies.
23 October 2013
Africa bullied to grow defective BT Maize: the failure of Monsanto’s M810 maize in South Af...
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has released a new report ‘Africa bullied to grow defective Bt Maize: the failure of Monsanto’s MON810 maize in South Africa,’ showing how Monsanto’s GM maize which utterly failed in SA, is now being foisted on the rest of the continent, through ‘sleight of hand.’ Read here.
13 August 2010
GM Sorghum: Africa’s Golden Rice
In this paper, we critically analyse the African Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) project, a GM ‘poster project’ in Africa. We dig beneath the veneer of the project being an “African led solution” to poverty and malnutrition on the continent. We also focus attention on the myriad of sorghum research initiatives currently underway in Africa, using both […]
7 February 2010
Bilateral biosafety bullies: How corporations use bilateral trade channels to weaken biotech regu...
Across the world, the use of bilateral trade instruments to prise open markets for genetically modified (GM) crops is escalating. To expand business overseas, the biotech industry needs stronger intellectual property rules and weaker biosafety standards. Bilateral trade deals are an effective way to do this. This report looks specifically at how the world’s grain […]
17 November 2009
Ongoing Concerns about Harmonisation of Biosafety Regulations in Africa
The paper is a response to concerns raised by the African Union’s Biosafety Unit about assertions made in an earlier briefing in June 2009 regarding the African Union’s biosafety harmonisation processes. In this briefing the Ms Swanby on behalf of the ACB salutes the initiatives taken by the AU in the biosafety discourse on the […]
10 August 2009
Pirating African heritage: the pillaging continues
The cases of suspected biopiracy are summarised and discussed in a few paragraphs. Patent numbers and/or application numbers are provided for each, as well as contact information for the entity or entities that have lodged the patent claims. Using the provided data, the full patent (application) text can be accessed online at patent websites, such […]
26 March 2009
Genes from Africa: the Colonisation of Human DNA
Indigenous people’s groups and NGOs have waged a long and bitter struggle against the Human Genome Diversity Project and similar efforts to collect the DNA of indigenous and other peoples without appropriate consent and sufficient safeguards against abuse. The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), the brainchild of Italian geneticist Luca Cavalli-Sforza, comprised of a group […]