publications

This report considers the N2Africa programme, which aims to develop and distribute improved, certified legume varieties (soya, common bean, groundnut and cow pea); promote and distribute inoculants and synthetic fertiliser; and develop commercial legume markets for smallholder integration in 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Tanzania, Uganda,

This synthesis report summarises ACB’s research on the Green Revolution push in Africa, based on fieldwork conducted in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe over the past three years.

Sub Saharan Africa’s seed systems are undergoing a profound transition, with the private sector leading the way.

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 Prot

The latest salvo in the battle over Africa's seed systems has been fired, writes Stephen Greenberg, with the Gates Foundation and USAID playing puppet-masters to Africa's governments - now meeting in Addis Ababa - as they drive forward corporation-friendly seed regulations that exclude and marginalize the small farmers whose seeds and labour fee

White men meet in London to plot ways of profiting off Africa's seed systems

A meeting is to be held in London on 23 March by predominantly white men with a sprinkling of Africans, some of whom represent private seed companies, to discuss how to make a killing off Africa?s seed systems.

In a scandalous move of skulduggery, the African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP), under the guise of empowering smallholder farmers in Africa, is subsidising multinational fertiliser and financial corporations on African soil. Other beneficiaries of this scheme are the global grain trading and food processing giants.

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has released a comprehensive critique of a report published by the African Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

African agriculture is in need of support and investment. Many initiatives are flowing from the North, including the G8's 'New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa' and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

At the heart of the leading initiatives to 'modernise' African agriculture is a drive to open markets and create space for multinationals to secure profits. Green revolution technologies - and the legal and institutional changes being introduced to support them - will benefit a few at the expense of the majority.

ACB's comments on the COMESA Harmonisation of seed trade regulations.

MODERNISING AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: WHO BENEFITS? 

The Africa Centre for Biosafety (ACB), supported by Food & Water Europe and the Gaia Foundation, today wrote to UK Ministers for International Development, Business and Environment asking for evidence for the basis of UK

The 'new' Green Revolution push in Africa is directed squarely at increasing agricultural production as the continent's most fundamental development priority.

'Marker Assisted Selection' uses molecular markers as tools in a plant or animal breeding programme to select for important agricultural traits, such as nutritional quality, drought tolerance, disease and pest resistance.

When world leaders hastily gathered at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation's (FAO) high level conference to respond to the global food crisis the three Rome based UN organizations (the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural development and the World Food Programme) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Alliance for a

After more than 10 years of genetically modified (GM) crop plants being grown in the world, only South Africa out of 53 countries on the African continent have commercial plantings of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).