Latest Resources
8 March 2019
Urgent call for African food sovereignty movements to connect with radical feminist movements on ...
This article was first published on the Inter Press Service Agency, on March 8, as part of its coverage of International Women’s Day. Africa is facing dire times. Climate change is having major impacts on the region and on agriculture in particular, with smallholder farmers, and especially women, facing drought, general lack of water, shifting […]
4 March 2019
Failure of Monsanto’s drought tolerant maize pushed on Africa – confirmed in US
The ACB shares with you a blog written by ACB’s Sabrina Masinjila and Anne Maina from Biodiversity and Biosafety Association (BIBA), Kenya A recent United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report confirms what independent biosafety scientists, and African civil society, have been stating all along: Monsanto’s drought tolerant (DT) maize (MON87460) does not work! The […]
12 November 2018
Good Food and Seed Festival, Harare, Zimbabwe
By Edmore Parichi and Busi Mgangxela From the 18-20 October 2018, the Good Food and Seed Festival was held at the Harare Botanical Gardens in Zimbabwe. Edmore Parichi, Busi Mgangxela and Aviwe Biko are small-scale farmers from Eastern Cape in South Africa who took part in this very important event with support from African Centre […]
1 November 2018
Demystifying GM maize through collective action on World Food Day
In an effort to highlight the complex and concentrated South African agricultural and food system, with its unsustainable and deepening inequality, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and partner organisations initiated a “no GMO-maize campaign” earlier in 2018. This was followed up in August 2018, with a meeting of organisations that included Zingisa, Ntinga Ntaba […]
30 October 2018
Reflections on ITPGRFA, UPOV 1991 and South Africa
Recently the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) held national consultations on whether South Africa should accede to two international agreements related to seed: The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA, or the Treaty) and the International Convention on the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 1991. The […]
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, […]
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 […]
12 March 2018
Insights into our food system: Why did catering indigenous local food at the National Seed Dialog...
On December 2017, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) hosted a National Seed Dialogue and Celebration at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The event brought together farmers and civil society organisations from eight provinces, as well as from across the region, to celebrate the work that small-scale farmers do as custodians of seeds, and to share […]
22 January 2018
Art, Seed Sovereignty and Activism: Weaving New Stories
Preparing for the National Seed Dialogue and Celebration, hosted by the African Centre for Biodiversity, smallholder farmers, activists and government officials are crowded into the atrium of the Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill and a drum is beating. A performer, Simo Mpapa Majola, dressed in blankets, is praying and singing and imploring the audience. He […]