Latest Resources
8 December 2023
Wishing you a joyous end of year
“Our own shadows disappear as the feet of thousandsby the tens of thousands pound the fallow landinto new dust thatrising like a marvellous pollen will befertileeven as the first woman whisperingimagination to the trees around her madefor righteous fruitfrom such deliberate defence of lifeas no other stillwill claim inferior to any other safetyin the world.”— […]
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 […]
19 October 2023
ACB attends 25th SBSTTA meeting in Kenya
The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is participating in the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 25th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) in Nairobi, Kenya, 15–19 October 2023, represented by advocacy and research officer Sabrina Masinjila. (She is pictured above, sitting next to Barbara Ntambirweki – Ugandan lawyer and researcher working […]
16 October 2023
World Food Day 2023: Working towards a just food system for all
This World Food Day, marked annually on 16 October, we’re connecting the dots between agriculture, our wider food system and the multidimensional crises we face, which includes climate change. The industrialised food system, from agricultural inputs and production to consumption, transport and storage, feeds climate change, and climate change, in turn, impacts the food system, […]
28 September 2023
Just transition and adaptation in the food system: national policy dialogue
The National policy dialogue on a just transition and adaptation in the food system took place in Ekurhuleni, from 20-22 September. Organisations representing the labour movement, smallholder farmers, farm workers, labour tenants, informal traders, waste reclaimers, food and land justice organisations, civil society, and policymakers came together to discuss building a coordinated understanding and policy […]
19 September 2023
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 […]
30 August 2023
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; […]
16 May 2023
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 […]
1 May 2023
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 […]
3 March 2023
Agroecology advocacy meeting held in Suurbraak
In February, together with the Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG) and Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE), the ACB hosted a meeting in Suurbraak, Western Cape, bringing together a network of farmer and civil society organisations to discuss a strategy to approach government to support agroecology. Through the lens of advocacy, and a focus on the challenges facing […]