Latest Resources

28 March 2019
Cyclone Idai’s warning – Shift to agroecological systems that work with nature or suffer more dev...
Ranked as one of the worst tropical storms on record to hit Africa, Cyclone Idai made landfall in Beira on Thursday 15 March, before lacerating its way across central Mozambique and then on towards neighbouring Malawi and Zimbabwe. Heavy rains, flooding and storm damage has resulted in devastation on a vast scale. It is estimated […]

7 December 2018
Mark Lynas slammed for exploiting African farmers’ images to promote GMOs
African farmers are demanding that Lynas cease using their images in his GMO promotionals; Lynas’s mischief-making may have triggered Tanzania’s ending of GMO field trials. Report: Claire Robinson, GMWatch and Mariam Mayet, African Centre for Biodiversity. The British pro-GMO activist Mark Lynas has angered African farmers over his mis-use of their images on the internet […]

23 November 2018
Tanzania orders destruction of Monsanto/Gates’ GM trials due to illegal use for pro-GM propaganda
Dar es Salaam 23 November 2018 Tanzanian civil society organisations (CSOs) welcome the decision of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mathew Mtigumwe, to bring an immediate stop to all ongoing GM field trials taking place in the country. These are under the auspices of the Water Efficient Maize for […]

26 June 2018
WEMA’S Bt Maize & Fall Armyworm Africa claims are unscientific and unsubstantiated
Press Release from the African Centre for Biodiversity Johannesburg, June 27 A new research paper BT Maize and the Fall Armyworm in Africa: Debunking industry claims published by the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) today, debunks unsubstantiated and unscientific claims made by the biotech machinery, especially the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project, that […]

4 June 2018
The debate on GMOs in Africa rages on, this time in Tanzania
A heated public debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) ensued during a seminar organised by MVIWATA – a network of smallholder farmers – in Morogoro, Tanzania. The meeting took place on 12 May 2018 and was attended by more than a hundred people, including parliamentarians and high-level government officials. The event, which was intended only […]

28 May 2018
Biosafety Indaba eSwatini: Unclear motives following approval to cultivate Bt cotton, despite dis...
The news that the Swaziland Environmental Authority (SEA) had authorised the importation and commercial release of Bt cotton seeds came as a huge shock to the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB). It meant that ACB had to reconsider its earlier acceptance of an invitation by SEA to attend a National Biosafety Indaba on 22 May […]

18 October 2017
The GMO crisis in Swaziland
Swaziland is under enormous pressure to introduce genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the country’s farming system. This pressure is coming not only from Monsanto but also from farmers and some sections of the public who have been fed a great deal of misinformation and hype by the pro-biotech machinery. The farmers, acting on incomplete and […]

16 October 2017
GM cotton in Africa: battleground between US and Chinese Capital
This paper provides an overview of the GM cotton push in in East and Southern Africa, within the context of the global and regional cotton markets.

26 September 2017
Frequently asked questions about the WEMA project
The ACB and TWN have put together a short Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project.

18 September 2017
MVIWATA and ACB Opposing Application for Field trials of Stacked GM Maize MON 87460 X MON 810
The Tanzania National Farmers Network Organisation, Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania (MVIWATA) and the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) are objecting to an application submitted by the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) for confined field trials of Monsanto’s stacked GM maize MON 87460 X MON 810 (GM drought tolerant stacked with throw-away […]