Latest Resources

Financialisation, dematerialisation, digitalisation & distancing of Africa’s agriculture

What future for small-scale farmers and their food and seed systems? Following on from part one, The rise of digital agriculture and dispossession in Africa: implications for smallholder farmers, part two looks at how private-sector interests and motives are driving the financialisation of Africa’s food and farming systems. Financialisation is the focus on generation of […]

The rise of digital agriculture and dispossession in Africa: implications for smallholder farmers

In part one in a series of two, consisting of a briefing paper and linked fact sheet, we explore the current status of digital agriculture in Africa and the potential implications its deployment has for smallholder farmers on the continent. We outline three primary areas of concern related to potential inequitable benefits and influence accrued from its deployment; […]

Seed harmonisation in Eastern and Southern Africa

Failures, corporate occupation, and the rise of digitalised seed trade: dire implications for farmer managed seed and food systems in Africa Regional seed policy harmonisation processes on seed and plant variety protection (PVP) legislation have been underway for the past 15 years on the African continent. These have taken place under the auspices of various […]

Cultivating diversity for a just agroecological transition in Africa

The inextricable link between agricultural biodiversity, agroecology, climate change, and biodiversity In this briefing, Cultivating diversity for a just agroecological transition in Africa: the inextricable link between agricultural biodiversity, agroecology, climate change, and biodiversity, we highlight the pivotal role of agricultural biodiversity, in particular, crop diversity and its interrelatedness and dependence on farmer managed seed […]

Assessment of support for agroecology in South Africa’s policy landscape

by Dr Stephen Greenberg (Veuillez cliquer ici pour le français) In March 2023, civil society organisations and farmers met with the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development to share views on agroecology and to promote a call from 58 organisations for a national agroecology strategy. In support of the process, the ACB […]

The Last Seed – A film produced by Rosa Luxemburg

‘The Last Seed,’ a documentary film produced by Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung in association with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), Biowatch, and Participatory Ecological Land Use, Management (PELUM) Tanzania, features ACB’s ED Mariam Mayet as one of the key voices advocating for seed sovereignty on the African continent. Through the lived experiences of African small-scale […]

UNSAFE GM WHEAT TO ENTER SOUTH AFRICA’S FOOD SYSTEMS

DISASTER CAPITALISM, BIOTECH INDUSTRY IN DECLINE & INSTRUMENTALISATION OF WHEAT IN AFRICA In August 2022, the South African government approved a GM wheat variety HB4 for importation as food, feed, and for the purposes of industrial food and feed processing, following Nigeria’s approval in July. Since then, Argentina and Brazil have been the only two […]

Experts on Gene Drives

Gene Drives: privatising malaria control | Mariam Mayet Save our Seeds travelled the world speaking to some of the world’s leading thinkers, activists and academics on the impact of gene drives. They recognise ACB’s The financialisation of malaria in Africa: Burkina Faso, rogue capital & GM /gene drive mosquitoes (2022), as the most in-depth analysis of the […]

REFLEXIONS DES AGRICULTEURS ZIMBABWEENS SUR LA FOIRE AUX SEMENCES PAYSANNES D’AFRIQUE DE L’OUESTS...

La 7e foire annuelle aux semences paysannes d’Afrique de l’Ouest, organisée par le Comité ouest-africain de semences paysannes (COASP), s’est tenue à Zoungbonou, au Bénin, du 9 au 11 mars 2023. Elle a rassemblé 75 exposants de 25 pays, principalement de la communauté ouest-africaine, mais aussi des agriculteurs d’Afrique de l’Est, des représentants du gouvernement […]

REFLECTIONS FROM ZIMBABWEAN FARMERS ON WEST AFRICA PEASANTS’ SEED FAIR

The 7th annual West Africa Peasants’ Seed Fair, hosted by the West African Committee for Farmers’ Seeds (Comité Ouest Africain de Semences Paysannes ­– COASP), was held in Zoungbonou, Benin, from 9-11 March 2023, bringing together 75 exhibitors from 25 countries, predominantly from the West African community but also including farmers from East Africa, government officials and […]