publications

This paper, The Status Report on the SADC, COMESA and EAC harmonised seed trade regulations: Where does this leave the regions’ smallholder farmers?, researched and written by Linzi Lewis and Sabrina Masinjila of the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), provides a brief background and status update on efforts by regional economic communities t

This statement represents the position of civil society in Mozambique on farm input subsidies in that country.

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.

South Africa is in the grip of the worst drought since 1992, with many parts of the country experiencing record temperatures and little to no rain.

The chemical fertiliser push in Africa and its implications for smallholder farmers is not receiving enough attention in current discourses concerning Green Revolution policies and practises in Africa.

Non-governmental and farmer organisations from South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya and Uganda strongly condemn the go-ahead given by the South African GMO authorities for Monsanto to commercially sell its genetically modified (GM) “drought tolerant” maize

Friends of the Earth International, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

The most persistent myth about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is that they are necessary to feed a growing global population. Highly effective marketing campaigns have drilled it into our heads that GMOs will produce more food on less land in an environmentally friendly manner.

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 today released its research report based on field work conducted in Malawi, titled "Running to stand still: Small-scale farmers and the Green Revolution in Malawi." The research, conducted by the ACB in collaboration with the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM),

According to ACB's lead researcher, Dr Stephen Greenberg, 'our research found that small-scale farmers are using shockingly high levels ofsynthetic fertilisers at great financial costs to themselves and the publicpurse. Rising soil infertility is a feature of farming systems reliant on synthetic fertiliser.

South African agribusinesses are aggressively expanding into Africa in search of profits from a relatively untapped consumer market with rising income levels and to escape the country's negative economic conditions.

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has today brought into sharp focus the white bread industry in South Africa with the release of its new report "GM Contamination, Cartels and Collusion in South Africa's Bread Industry.' The report shows that the white bread tested contains high levels of Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) soya in the soy

This briefing paper exposes the high levels of GM soya in South Africa's popular white bread brands and reveals how just four companies – Tiger Brands, Pioneer Foods, Premier Foods and Foodcorp control the Wheat-to-Bread value chain.

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).

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has today released its new research report titled 'GM Maize: Lessons For Africa-Cartels, Collusion And Control Of South Africa's Staple Food' showing how a select group of companies, including Tiger Brands, Pioneer and Premier Foods who have previou

This is a briefing about power and control in our food system, focusing chiefly on South Africa's staple food, maize. It shows how a select group of companies, including Tiger Brands, Pioneer and Premier Foods commandeer the entire maize value chain and continue to squeeze the poorest South Africans.

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa[1] is alarmed at the approval during September 2013, by the Council of Ministers of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) of the COMESA 'Draft Policy Statements and Guidelines for commercial planting of GMOs, Trade in GMOs

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.

African Centre for Biosafety, ETC Group, FoodMattersZimbabwe and CTDT