AFSA CONFERENCE IN SENEGAL 3-7 NOVEMBER 2018
BRIEF REPORT COMPILED BY RAYMOND TIVAFIRE
Firstly I would like to appreciate most heartily the role you played as COMPAS Africa Coordinator for mandating me on behalf of COMPAS Africa Network to participate at such an august Conference that resonates well with our Network programme activities. This was very and still remains fundamental as a form of capacity building emanating from wider exposure, sharing experiences, knowledge and expertise in solidarity with like-minded Networks from within and outside Africa.
As the Conference commenced critical burning issues were raised and thoroughly discussed with regards to promoting and enhancing African Food Systems and agro ecology activities in Africa. The Conference remarked that food is culture and it is within the context of farmers’ culture and beliefs that communities recognize and define what food is.
It was observed that outsiders are manipulating African food systems through genetic modification. This manipulation was unanimously opposed throughout the Conference discussions. Africa should remain in its context of agricultural food production systems that are harmonious and friendly to the health of the people, food security enhancement and climate change positive adaptation.
There should be transition from conventional agriculture to agro-ecology and Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge Systems of the local farmers. This will deal decisively with Corporations that are not concerned about our environment and health but making colossal profits out of our natural resources. It was therefore recommended that in agro-ecology and natural resources conservation, Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge Systems, Culture and Cosmovision of the local farmers should play a key role as a sustainable approach in African Food Systems since food is part of their culture. Agro-ecology is culturally appropriate.
Farmers should desist from using chemical fertilizers. Instead, organic fertilizers should be the mainstay to maintain the nutrient richness of the soil hence ensuring abundant yields while promoting home grown ecological land use practices. The inclusion of the youth in African Food Systems was found inevitable since there is great need to pass on our African indigenous knowledge in food systems to the current and future generations to guarantee continued appropriate and culture-relevant food systems of an African identity.
The challenge for Africans to realize food self sufficiency is to address unavailability of allocated arable land to the farmers. Farmers need adequate land distributed equitably regardless of gender. The Conference emphasized that women being the major food producers and custodians of seeds, should be allocated enough land to produce sufficient food and seed. With regards to Farmers Seed Systems it was important to note that farmers’ seed feed Africa; farmers’ seeds are reliable, available and affordable; farmers’ seed practices are diverse and knowledge-rich; women are Africa’s seed guardians; farmer managed seed systems underpin small scale agro-ecological production and food sovereignty; farmer-managed seed systems are culturally appropriate, practical, customary and inclusive and they produce bio-diverse and ecologically resilient seeds. The Conference noted that the multiple influences of colonization, commerce and corporations are eroding these localized bio-diverse food systems through the aggressive imposition of industrial commodity production often destined for export. It was revealed
that this industrial system of production of agricultural commodities replaces farmers’ bio-diverse food varieties with genetically uniform monocultures of industrial seeds of just a few species such as maize, soya bean and commercial vegetables. It was also acknowledged that some farmers are becoming dependent on government industrial seed supply. They are also losing their seed diversities and they are vulnerable to different environmental hazards, due to weak ability of “improved” seeds to cope with the changing environment. Land grabbing was therefore opposed to a large extend in support of availing enough agricultural land to many local farmers who will ultimately realize food and seed security. Governments that are giving in to corporate pressure undermining local seed systems should be resisted in this regard. In this perspective, the existence of AFSA was found to be appropriate and a salvation to many agro-ecological initiatives and food sovereignty impediments in Africa.
On dealing with the policy issue, the Conference found Food Sovereignty to include the rights of peoples, communities and countries to define their own policies for agriculture, pastoralism, fisheries, consumers and trade of food, as long as these policies are ecological, sustainable, contribute to social justice and do not restrict the possibility of others to do the same. It also questions what is produced, how it is produced and who produces it. It means the ability to regain self reliance and assert one’s food independence by exercising the right to choose what to grow and how to grow it. When communities achieve food sovereignty, they achieve food security, better livelihoods, better nutrition and a better standard of living. AFSA was therefore created to have one voice in agro-ecology because it (agro-ecology) is:
Good for our health
Good for our IKS, Culture and Cosmovision
Good for our seeds
Good for our food and
Good for our economy.
Good for positive climatic conditions
The successful continuity of the Conference deliberations revealed that Africa is defined by outsiders from what we do not have and all bad things. African seeds are demonized while promoting exotic varieties that are not relevant to our sustainable agricultural systems. Similarly, African Knowledge System in agro-ecology is being degraded in a big way. This needs to be reversed and stopped by wholesomely immersing ourselves in our heritage, in this regard our traditional approaches and processes in food production and consumerism. It was observed that as Africans we are moving away from our traditional food systems to exotic food systems that are different and opposed to our traditional way of life. Farmers and consumers determine their food systems not outsiders. Rapid urbanization is one of the major factors in shifting from traditional to alien foods. Currently, it was found evident that children choose to eat foreign fast foods than our indigenous foods. We therefore need to urgently change this and bring our African foods to the fore as part of our cultural heritage. The Conference found and understood that food is our culture. It defines who we are and where we originate from.
It was found out that using chemical fertilizers in agro-ecology will be “cooking the earth planet”. Hence it is necessary to link the soil with our cultural values. Soil should be conserved and enriched using organic natural manure and embarking on furrow cultivation.
On the issue of climate change, it was found important to use the Indigenous Knowledge and Indigenous Technology of the local farmers who understand their environment better. It was therefore found important that AFSA’s approach on climate change should be to collect and rely on information on Community Resilience. However, through group discussions it emerged that the major causes of climate chaos are:
Fossil fuel extraction
Land use ( industrial and commercial agricultural systems)
Transportation using fossil fuels like petrol and diesel
Deforestation is consuming a lot of wood forests. United Nations is not doing anything on the right to have sustainable environment.
One of the key issues that was discussed and resolved unanimously by the Conference was to embark on a campaign with the topic “PROMOTING AGRO-ECOLOGY AS A SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE” This will be done as soon as possible since some of the resources are available. It was found out that if the campaign is to succeed we should influence farmers on the ground and engage relevant civil society organizations that are active in agro-ecology work.
It was gratifying to note that we as Compas Africa Network were very active in contributing to all group work sessions since most of the participants lacked a deeper understanding of key fundamentals, approaches and processes in rural community development using indigenous knowledge systems. Overly, it became evident that the programmes that Compas Africa Network is implementing particularly Community Resilience, Food Security, Nature Conservation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Culture and Cosmovision , Appropriate Technology and Promotion of local languages are inherent in the operational objectives of AFSA. This was quite encouraging when looking at our Compas Africa Network level. Therefore, in such fora as AFSA Copmas Africa Network is very relevant from a pragmatic viewpoint.
After the general proceedings we held an Annual General Meeting (AGM) for AFSA members only. Minutes of the previous AGM were read by the Secretary and members approved them as the correct record of the previous meeting. We were broken into our respective working groups of which we belonged to the Land Working Group and we were the chair in this respect. On behalf of Compas Africa Network I presented part of the working group report while the other part was presented by Famara who intertwined his report facts with those contained in our Compas Africa network report. However, some group members were of the suggestion of changing the leadership of the Land Working Group but it was found inappropriate to do so during your absence. As we were called back from group work for presentation Compas Africa Network was tasked to present once more its report but this could not be because it was then unanimously agreed that all reports from Working Groups should be submitted to the AFSA Coordinator who will compile one composite report for adoption at the next meeting. It was found to be a constitutional obligation of the Coordinator to present such a comprehensive report.
On another note AFSA members were told to pay up their membership fees some of which date back to three years. Such arrears will lead to the forfeiture of the membership of the network members in question. In this context two more new members qualified to join AFSA. They are one from Malawi and one from America.
As I highlighted earlier on Brother and as a recommendation in your WhatsApp message to me let us discuss more on strengthening our Compas Africa Network. I have identified many aspects from other Networks that we can also apply to our own.
This is a summarized report. The bigger report will be disseminated by AFSA Secretariat in due course.
POSTED ON BEHALF OF MR BERNARD GURI
