Latest Resources
11 September 2025
Farmers’ rights, farmer seed systems under threat by Enhancement of Multilateral System of Access...
ACB, as part of a broader collective, has submitted a letter to the African government officials who will be negotiating on proposals to amend the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) at its next Governing Body meeting in Lima, Peru, in November 2025. Thank you very much to those who […]
26 August 2025
We don’t need genome editing to ensure Africa’s food sovereignty
Will stringent regulation safeguard Africa’s food systems? Across Africa, powerful corporate, donor, and government interests are driving a rapid push to deregulate genome editing in agriculture. Countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso have adopted product-based guidelines that exempt many genome-edited crops from GMO regulation if no foreign DNA is present in […]
13 August 2025
MLS of ABS under ITPGRFA threatens farmer seed and national sovereignty: Letter to African negoti...
Click here for the French version. The African Centre for Biodiversity is appealing to civil society in Africa, and in particular, farmers’ organisations, to please sign onto our letter to African government officials who will be negotiating on proposals to amend the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty) at […]
14 May 2025
ACB co-hosts capacity-building workshop on PVP and farmers’ rights in Uganda
Organised in partnership with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and the Association for Plant Breeding for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES), ACB is co-hosting and participating in a capacity-building workshop on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) and Farmers’ Rights, currently underway in Entebbe, Uganda. The workshop, bringing together civil society organisations, smallholder farmers, […]
22 October 2024
Resistance against “bogus” drought tolerant (DT) maize in South Africa: a snapshot of two decades...
UPDATE: After nine years of arduous litigation by the ACB, a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal on 22 October 2024 set aside several layers of decision-making regarding the approval of the application by Monsanto, now Bayer, for commercial release of its drought-tolerant genetically modified maize, MON87460. 28 June 2023 UPDATE: In 2023, […]
25 September 2024
New Genetic Engineering Technologies in Food and Agriculture in Africa
Over the past few years, the ACB has produced and shared several briefing papers concerning new genetic engineering technologies for food and agriculture. Building on this work, and in light of the major deregulation push globally concerning genome editing, including in several countries in Africa, we have produced two updated factsheets on this dangerous distraction […]
14 May 2024
ACB’s legacy podcast: celebrating 20 years of resistance against GMOs in Africa
This legacy series provides an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the past two decades of ACB’s advocacy and activism, with a particular focus on resisting the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into our agricultural and food systems in Africa. Our first podcast in the series is hosted by ACB Research and Advocacy Officer […]
10 May 2024
Expansion of gene drive mosquito projects in Africa
International and national biosafety regulations are urgently needed, including the right to say no By Sabrina Masinjila, African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) research and advocacy officer Masinjila can be seen making a statement on behalf of the Convention of Biological Diversity Alliance (CBDA), calling for Parties to support the ongoing work of the Multidisciplinary Ad […]
23 April 2024
Reviving use of local seeds in African farming
African Centre for Biodiversity’s executive director Mariam Mayet is featured on a SciDev podcast, Africa Science Focus, speaking about the importance of supporting and revitalising of farmer seed systems in Africa. Listen to the podcast here. Header Image Credit: ©2019 CIAT/Georgina Smith on Flickr
5 December 2023
UPOV-aligned PVP laws impinge on farmer seed systems
We stand united in our commitment to addressing the pervasive push for the adoption of plant variety protection (PVP) laws in Africa, aligned with the Eurocentric International Union for Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) 1991 model. We continue to declare our unwavering dedication to championing a just and sustainable agricultural future for the […]