Latest Resources
2 September 2014
Africa an El Dorado for South Africa’s Agribusiness Giants
South African agribusinesses are aggressively expanding into Africa in search of profits from a relatively untapped consumer market with rising income levels and to escape the country’s negative economic conditions. This paper traces this expansion and outlines the implications for Africa’s market structure, food security and food sovereignty movements, as well as exploring the potential […]
18 November 2013
Giving With One Hand and Taking With Two: A Critique of AGRA’s African Agriculture Status R...
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has released a comprehensive critique of a report published by the African Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The analysis of AGRA’s African Agriculture Status Report 2013 reveals that AGRA’s vision is premised on Public-Private Partnerships in which African governments will shoulder the cost and burden of […]
12 July 2013
Do African Farmers Need CAADP?
The Peoples’ Dialogue and the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) have written a short booklet on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), the African Union’s framework for agricultural development for Africa, titled “Do African Farmers Need CAADP?” The objective is to summarise and simplify information on CAADP so as to, collectively, create […]
15 May 2013
STATEMENT BY CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFRICA
MODERNISING AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: WHO BENEFITS? African agriculture is in need of support and investment. Many initiatives are flowing from the North, including the G8’s “New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa” and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). These initiatives are framed in terms of the African Union’s Comprehensive African […]
25 September 2012
Open Letter to African Governments and AGRA (The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa)
The undersigned 28 civil society organisations support and represent the interests of smallholder farmers and livestock keepers from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and are concerned with the conservation of agricultural biodiversity for livelihood security and food sovereignty. View the full statement here.
13 September 2012
The Pioneer/Pannar seed merger: deepening structural inequalities in South Africa
In this briefing, we deal with the Pioneer/Pannar seed merger, outlining the evidence led by the ACB in opposing the merger, what is at stake for South Africa if the merger is approved and the extent to which the merger will deepen structural imbalances in the South African economy. Read the briefing here.
31 July 2012
Call on BASF, Bayer, and Syngenta to stop marketing highly hazardous pesticides
PAN Germany, a charitable organisation which provides information on the adverse effects of pesticides and promotes environmentally friendly and socially just alternatives. We will send the following letter in your name: To: Syngenta, Martin Taylor, Chairman of the Board of Directors Bayer CropScience, Sandra E. Peterson, Chief Executive Office BASF, Wayne T. Smith, Member of […]
28 May 2012
Smallholder farmers and consumers to pay the price for corporate seed merger
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) learned today that US multi-national seed company Pioneer Hi-Bred has been granted permission by the Competition Appeal Court, to acquire the nation’s last major independent seed company, Pannar seed. The ACB was an intervening party, opposing the merger in the public interest. In granting the merger, the court has […]
15 May 2012
Big Business Drives SA’s Biofuels Programme
In late February 2012 leading figures from the fossil fuel industry met in Pretoria to forge ahead with the government’s highly controversial plans for an SA biofuels industry. The catalyst for this meeting was the publication by the government last September of draft regulations for the mandatory blending of biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply. […]
9 January 2012
ACB comments on biofuels mandatory blending
The African Centre for Biodiversity hereby lodges its objections and comments to the draft regulations regarding the mandatory blending of biofuels with petrol and diesel. Read here.