Latest Resources

1 December 2020

Multiple shocks and the Ebola and COVID pandemics in West and Central Africa: extraction, profite...

Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français. We are pleased to present the first discussion paper in our “Multiple Shocks in Africa Series”. The tragic story of the Ebola pandemic in West Africa, and the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in particular, is not just one of disease emergence. It is fundamentally […]

11 September 2020

DRC’s seed laws set to destroy small farmers’ seed systems

(Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français) This briefing, in collaboration with the Common Front for the Protection of the Environment and Protected Spaces of the DRC (FCPEEP), is concerned with how the Seed Bill of the Democratic Republic of Congo may impact on farmer managed seed systems (FMSS), which remain the very basis for seed, […]

29 May 2020

Profiteering from health and ecological crisis in Africa: The Target Malaria project and new risk...

Cliquez ici pour le français The ACB shares this research paper with you, of the wave of ‘Trojan horse’ second-generation genetic engineering strategies targeted at, inter alia, malaria in Africa, at a time when the COVID-19 crisis is fracturing the myth that global health expertise is the domain of North America and Europe. Global health […]

5 March 2020

GM Potato Push in East Africa

Andean and African farmers condemn digital sequence information of potatoes from centres of origin – opens doors for biopiracy (Passer à la version française) (Por favor, haga clic aquí para el español) Cusco, Peru; Johannesburg, South Africa and Kigali, Rwanda – 05 March, 2020 Billionaire potato overlords on both sides of the North Atlantic want […]

26 April 2019

Undermining farmers’ rights and seed systems: Why the EAC seed and plant varieties bill must be d...

In this vlog, African Centre for Biodiversity’s (ACB’s) Sabrina Masinjila, based in Tanzania, speaks about the East African Community Seed and Plant Varieties Bill, 2018 and some of the concerns related to the Bill, as more fully set out in a detailed report and summary. As described in the vlog and our detailed report, Concerns […]

8 April 2019

Production quality controls in farmer seed systems in Africa

This ACB report explores issues relating to farmers’ independent seed development, production and distribution. Drawing from innovative case studies in Brazil, East Africa and elsewhere, suggestions are presented to strengthen farmer quality control practices. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 65% of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods, producing around 80% of food consumed. […]

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 […]

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.

1 September 2017

WEMA Project shrouded in secrecy: open letter to African governments to be accountable to farmers...

The Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project promises to develop drought tolerance in maize for the benefit of small holder farmers, but is really a project designed to facilitate the spread of hybrid and genetically modified (GM) maize varieties on the continent. WEMA involves five African countries: Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. […]

8 July 2015

ARIPO sells out African Farmers, seals Secret Deal on Plant Variety Protection

Statement issued by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) On 06 July 2015, in Arusha, Tanzania, a Diplomatic Conference held under the auspices of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) adopted a harmonised regional legal framework for the protection of plant breeders’ rights—the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of […]