2026: A pivotal year for indigenous seeds and Farmer-Managed Seed Systems in Africa

Across Africa, 2026 is emerging as an important year for indigenous seeds, community seed banks and Farmer-Managed Seed Systems (FMSS). A series of farmer exchanges, seed fairs, training workshops and continental conferences is moving the debate beyond conserving traditional varieties towards a wider discussion about farmers' rights, seed sovereignty, climate resilience, agrobiodiversity and the place of FMSS in national and continental seed policies.

The events are particularly timely because they converge around the African Union's growing recognition of Farmer-Managed Seed Systems. They also reveal different perspectives on the future of African seed systems: while some initiatives emphasize integration between farmer-managed and formal seed sectors, civil-society movements increasingly stress farmers' rights to save, use, exchange and sell seed, the protection of indigenous knowledge and genetic resources, and farmers' participation in seed governance.

Main indigenous-seed and FMSS events in Africa in 2026

• January 2026 – Uganda–Kenya Community Seed Bank Learning Exchange, western Kenya
• 27 February–1 March – 6th Central African Farmers' Seed Fair (FOSPAC 6), Esse, Cameroon
• 2–4 June – 4th Pan-African Conference on Seed Governance and 4th Farmers' Seed Fair, N'Djamena, Chad
• June – Community Seed Banks in Humanitarian–Development–Peace Contexts Workshop, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• 21 June – Training on Production and Preservation of Farmer Seeds, Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria
• 9 July – Opening of the Mutiusinazita Community Seed Bank, Buhera, Zimbabwe
• 4–8 August – World Social Forum, Cotonou, Benin, including the Roundtable on Farmer-Managed Seed Systems in Africa
• 5–7 October – Inaugural African Union Africa Seed Summit, Mbabane, Eswatini
• 17–20 November – 1st Eastern Africa Indigenous Seed Conference, Nairobi, Kenya
• January – Farmers learning from community seed banks in Kenya

January 2026. The year began with a practical South-South learning exchange involving farmers from the Masindi and Hoima community seed banks in Uganda, who travelled to western Kenya to learn from the Kabudi-Agoro, Lower Nyando and Vihiga community seed banks. 

• The exchange formed part of the final workshop of a project on neglected and underutilized species (NUS), implemented with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and Seed Savers Network, with support from the Netherlands and the Benefit-Sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
• The exchange demonstrated that community seed banks can do considerably more than conserve seed. By connecting indigenous seed diversity with diversified farming, value addition, nutrition and cultural heritage, they can become local institutions supporting more resilient food systems. 
• The experience is particularly relevant for neglected and underutilized crops, whose continued cultivation frequently depends on farmer-to-farmer seed exchange rather than commercial seed markets.

From 27 February to 1 March 2026, Esse in Cameroon hosted the 6th Central African Farmers' Seed Fair
(FOSPAC 6). 

• Organized by the Network of Sustainable Development Actors (RADD), in partnership with the municipality of Esse and under the patronage of Cameroon's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the fair focused on community farmer-saved seed banks as instruments for safeguarding local genetic heritage.
• FOSPAC illustrates the importance of seed fairs as spaces where farmers are not merely recipients of improved varieties but seed producers, conservers and innovators. 
• The 2026 edition also highlighted the potential role of municipalities in supporting community seed banks and linking local seed conservation with agroecology, food sovereignty and territorial development.

2–4 June 2026 in N'Djamena, Chad. A major milestone came with the 4th Pan-African Conference on Seed Governance, held alongside the fourth edition of the Farmers' Seed Fair. 

• Convened by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), the conference brought together farmers' organizations, civil-society organizations, women and youth movements, academics, researchers, parliamentarians, local governments, regional institutions and development partners from across Africa.
• The meeting culminated in the N'Djamena Declaration – AFSA: “Africa's Seeds Belong to Its Peoples.” The Declaration calls for stronger recognition, protection and implementation of farmers' rights and seed sovereignty and places Farmer-Managed Seed Systems at the centre of Africa's food future. AFSA argues that FMSS remain the principal source of seed for millions of African farmers while facing pressure from restrictive seed legislation, corporate concentration and emerging digital technologies affecting genetic resources and associated knowledge.
• The N'Djamena meeting therefore represented an important shift from discussing indigenous seeds principally as genetic resources that need conserving towards addressing the political and governance dimensions of seed: who controls it, who establishes seed standards, whose varieties are recognized, and whether farmers retain the right to reproduce and exchange the seeds they have developed over generations.

June 2026. Another important discussion took place through the Integrated Seed Sector Development Africa (ISSD Africa) Community of Practice. 

• At a workshop in Addis Ababa, partners from Ethiopia, Somaliland, South Sudan and Uganda examined community seed banks through the Humanitarian–Development–Peace nexus.
• The experiences presented demonstrate that community seed banks can simultaneously conserve crop diversity, provide emergency seed following drought or conflict, support farmer seed enterprises and potentially strengthen cooperation between communities. Ethiopia, for example, was reported to have 43 community seed banks conserving more than 35 species and over 400 varieties. 
• The discussion therefore broadened the role of FMSS: indigenous and farmer-managed seeds are not only biodiversity assets but can form part of local resilience and humanitarian seed-security strategies.

21 June 2026. Tizi-Ouzou Living Lab in Algeria. In North Africa, the Horizon Europe NATAE project organized a training session on “Production and Preservation of Farmer Seeds”

• 
  The training covered production, selection, conservation and collective management of farmer
  seeds, together with practical instruction on establishing and managing a community seed bank.
• This event illustrates the connection between agroecological transition and seed diversity. 
• Agroecology depends not only on farming practices but also on farmers having access to crop diversity adapted to local environments. 
• Participants consequently expressed interest in creating a community seed bank to conserve the area's genetic heritage.

9 July 2026, Zimbabwe officially commissioned the Mutiusinazita Community Seed Bank in Buhera District. Supported by the Government of Zimbabwe and FAO through the Global Environment Facility-funded Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Programme, the seed bank conserves locally adapted crops including sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, bambara groundnut, cowpea and indigenous vegetables.

• 
  The initiative demonstrates the close relationship between indigenous crops and climate resilience. Recurrent drought and erratic rainfall have threatened both harvests and farmers' capacity to retain sufficient locally adapted seed for subsequent seasons. 
• The community seed bank consequently places farmers themselves at the centre of conserving agricultural biodiversity while connecting seed conservation with sustainable land management and climate-resilient agrifood systems.

4–8 August 2026. Roundtable on Farmer-Managed Seed Systems in Africa – World Social Forum 2026

• The World Social Forum in Cotonou, Benin provided a broader social-movement platform for the seed debate. 
• The Roundtable on Farmer-Managed Seed Systems in Africa, co-organized by AFSA, Centre for Environmental Justice Togo, No REDD in Africa Network and Brot für die Welt, focused on safeguarding FMSS as a cornerstone of agroecology and food sovereignty.
• The roundtable connected seed quality and community seed systems with wider questions concerning GMOs, hybrid seeds, seed sovereignty and public policy. Its significance lies in taking the seed discussion beyond specialist agricultural institutions and placing it within wider debates about food sovereignty, agroecology, social justice and control over natural resources.
• See GFAiR interview with Omoniyi Françoise Agbodjo: "A new generation of researchers is emerging with a desire to promote agriculture in a different way. Farmers' seeds are an essential genetic, cultural, and nutritional heritage."

5–7 October 2026 in Mbabane, Eswatini. The African Union Africa Seed Summit

• Different strands will converge at institutional level at the inaugural African Union Africa Seed Summit, scheduled for  Under the theme “Resilient Seed Systems for a Food Secure Africa,” the Summit is especially significant because of the AU's work on a continental Farmer-Managed Seed Systems policy framework.
• The challenge will be to develop an African seed-sector vision capable of accommodating commercial and public breeding systems alongside farmer-managed systems, without undermining farmers' seed rights, local varieties, indigenous knowledge and the enormous diversity maintained outside formal seed markets.

17–20 November 2026. First Eastern Africa Indigenous Seed Conference

• The year's indigenous-seed agenda will continue after the AU Summit with the 1st Eastern Africa Indigenous Seed Conference, scheduled for at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. Under the theme “Realizing the Right to Food through Seed Sovereignty,” the conference aims to establish and strengthen a regional Farmer-Managed Seed Systems Community of Practice.
• Its six thematic tracks demonstrate how much the seed agenda has expanded: Farmer-Managed Seed Systems in practice; seeds, climate change and resilience; gender equity and social inclusion; market innovations around FMSS; data sovereignty; and policy solutions for FMSS and seed sovereignty. Neglected and underutilized species and indigenous foods are explicitly included in discussions of markets and value addition.

Policy challenge for Africa

Taken together, the 2026 events reveal a remarkable progression. At community level, farmers are conserving, multiplying and exchanging indigenous seeds through community seed banks and seed fairs. At regional level, networks are exchanging experience and building Communities of Practice. At continental level, AFSA and other civil-society actors are advocating farmers' rights and seed sovereignty, while the African Union is bringing different actors together around the future of Africa's seed systems.

The sequence from Esse → N'Djamena → Cotonou → Mbabane → Nairobi is particularly significant. 

• It connects community seed conservation with civil-society advocacy, continental policy and regional implementation. 
• The N'Djamena Declaration provides a strong civil-society position before the AU Seed Summit; Cotonou places the debate within a wider food-sovereignty movement; 
• the AU Summit provides an opportunity for institutional recognition; 
• and the Nairobi conference can help translate continental debates into stronger farmer-managed networks and practices in Eastern Africa.

The central message emerging from these events is that indigenous seeds are no longer being discussed simply as old varieties that need to be conserved. They are increasingly recognized as living resources continuously selected and managed by farmers, closely connected to neglected and underutilized species, food cultures, nutrition, climate adaptation, women's knowledge, biodiversity and local economies. 

The policy challenge for Africa is therefore not simply how to supply farmers with more seed, but how to build a pluralistic seed system that recognizes farmers as seed producers, breeders, custodians of biodiversity and legitimate participants in seed governance.

Reflections on the side event on Forgotten Foods at the World Social Forum

8 August 2026. Cotonou and Abomey-Calavi, Benin. The 17th World Social Forum (WSF).  Reflections on the side event on Forgotten Foods at the World Social Forum.

GFAiR’s Collective Action on Forgotten Foods (CA FF) brings farmers, researchers, civil society and private-sector actors together to revive neglected and underutilized species (NUS) by strengthening farmer-led conservation and traditional knowledge, research and innovation, markets and value chains, and policy support—thereby improving biodiversity, nutrition, climate resilience and farmers’ livelihoods.

Interview with Francois Stepman, Advisor Global Forum for Agriculture and Innovation Research.

The speaker discusses the importance of revitalizing local nutrition and agroecology in Africa to combat malnutrition and climate change.

Local promotion: Consumption of local produce

• The goal is to promote African culinary heritage (lentils, beans, local plants) to reduce reliance on imports of rice, milk, and wheat.
• The concept of "forgotten foods" is central to addressing biodiversity and malnutrition issues.
• Intergenerational initiatives involving young people from Ghana and Nigeria aim to pass on traditional recipes through cooking workshops.

Agroecological issues: Production and health challenges

• The excessive use of toxic pesticides, particularly in Benin, is linked to a rise in health problems such as cancer.
• A major debate remains: can agroecology feed Africa's rapidly growing population—such as Nigeria's 220 million inhabitants?
• Research must focus on the genetic potential of rare plants regarding their resilience to climate change.

Research directions: Funding and priorities

• There is a critical need to redirect funding (from the World Bank, the European Commission, and national governments) toward research on local produce.
• Priorities must shift from an economy focused solely on exports (cocoa, maize) to the revitalization of local resources.
• How can a balance be struck between the yield requirements of a growing population and the preservation of age-old agroecological methods?

The West African Caravan: Defending Food Sovereignty through Land, Water and Peasant Seeds

The West African Caravan for Land, Water and Peasant Seeds has become one of the region's most visible grassroots mobilizations for food sovereignty, agroecology and communities' rights over natural resources. Initiated by the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles – West Africa (CGLTE-OA), the Caravan brings together farmers' organizations, pastoralists, fishers, women's and youth movements, civil-society organizations and agroecology networks. Since its first edition in 2016, it has sought to make the voices of rural communities heard in debates over land, water, seeds and agricultural policy. 

The movement itself brings together more than 300 organizations and has involved major regional networks including the Network of Peasant
Organizations and Agricultural Producers in West Africa (ROPPA), COPAGEN, the West African Committee for Peasant Seeds (COASP), La Via Campesina Africa, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and We Are the Solution.

From a regional caravan to a movement for food sovereignty

At the heart of the Caravan is a simple principle: food sovereignty is difficult to achieve when
farming communities do not control the resources required to produce food. Access to land and water is therefore inseparable from farmers' ability to save, reproduce, exchange and improve their own seeds. From its first edition, the Caravan explicitly connected these rights with family farming, peasant agroecology and food sovereignty, while challenging land, water and seed grabbing. Its vision emphasizes locally rooted food systems, biodiversity, farmers' control over seeds and respectful relationships between producers and consumers.

The Caravan is particularly significant because it takes these debates out of conference rooms and into farming communities. Rather than organizing a single regional meeting, delegations travel between countries and stop in communities where farmers, traditional authorities, women's groups, young people and policymakers can exchange experiences. Local struggles consequently become part of a regional political agenda. Research on the movement has highlighted precisely this ability of the Caravan to connect localized struggles over natural resources with broader West African and international movements for food sovereignty and climate justice.

Peasant and indigenous seeds at the centre

Peasant, traditional and indigenous seed systems are fundamental to this struggle. Generations of farmers have selected crops and varieties according to local soils, rainfall patterns, food cultures, nutritional preferences and farming systems. These systems maintain agricultural biodiversity while continuously adapting crops to changing environments. Seed sovereignty therefore goes beyond having physical access to seed: it concerns farmers' ability to save, select, multiply, exchange and transmit planting material and associated knowledge from one generation to another.

This is especially important for Africa's neglected and underutilized species (NUS), traditional crops and indigenous foods. Many such crops survive not because they have been prioritized by commercial seed companies, but because farming communities—often women—have continued cultivating, selecting, cooking and exchanging them. The erosion of farmer-managed seed systems can therefore mean more than the disappearance of varieties. It can also lead to the loss of traditional knowledge, food cultures, dietary diversity and locally adapted genetic resources.

The Caravan consequently raises a fundamental question about the future of African agriculture: who controls the seed? A food system increasingly dependent on a narrow range of commercial varieties risks marginalizing the diversity maintained in farmers' fields. By contrast, strengthening farmer-managed seed systems can complement formal breeding and genebank conservation by keeping crop diversity alive and evolving under real farming conditions. Previous Caravan activities have explicitly promoted common farmer seed banks alongside agroecological practices.

Women as custodians of seed diversity

The Caravan also brings attention to the often insufficiently recognized role of women in conserving agricultural biodiversity. In many West African farming and food systems, women are involved not only in production but also in selecting seed, storing planting material, processing crops and maintaining knowledge about preparation, nutrition and cultural uses. During earlier editions of the Caravan, organizers explicitly highlighted women's land rights and described women as important guardians of seeds.

Protecting indigenous and farmer-managed seeds must therefore go hand in hand with strengthening women's access to land, resources, decision-making and markets. A seed may be conserved in a genebank, but maintaining it as part of a living food culture requires farmers who continue to grow it and consumers who continue to value it.

The 2026 Caravan: converging on Cotonou

The fifth West African Caravan, held from 19 July to 9 August 2026, significantly expanded this regional mobilization. Two routes crossed West Africa: a Sahelian route from Senegal through Mali and Burkina Faso to Togo, and a coastal route from Guinea through Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana to Togo. They subsequently converged in Benin, where participants also met a Central African Caravan travelling from Cameroon through Nigeria ahead of the 17th World Social Forum in Cotonou. Organizers projected more than 500 participants, 18 stopovers and mobilization involving more than 20,000 people, particularly rural communities, women and youth.

The launch in Tambacounda, Senegal, already demonstrated the broad coalition behind the initiative. Participants included representatives from Senegal, Mauritania, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, alongside farmers' organizations, social movements, community leaders and local authorities. The launch was supported by the Dynamic for an Agroecological Transition in Senegal (DyTAES) and Enda Pronat.

(see: CGIAR Trust Fund (2024) Dynamic for the agroecological transition (Dytael) in Fatick - Senegal. Relocalization of the millet value chain for the territorialization of agroecology

The West African Caravan was initially stopped by Beninese police and sent back toward the border on 3 August 2026, reportedly amid problems concerning authorization and cross-border entry procedures for the large convoy of more than 400 participants from multiple West African countries.

The arrival in Cotonou was therefore more than the conclusion of a journey. It brought a decade of grassroots experience—from the Caravan editions of 2016, 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2026—into a global civil-society forum. Land governance, access to water, peasant seeds, agroecology, food sovereignty, climate change, social cohesion and peace could consequently be discussed not as separate issues, but as components of the same transformation.

From seed conservation to transformation of food systems

The importance of the West African Caravan ultimately lies in its insistence that seeds are simultaneously biological resources, cultural heritage, sources of livelihoods and instruments of food sovereignty. Conserving indigenous crops without strengthening the communities that cultivate them is insufficient. Likewise, promoting agroecology without addressing farmers' access to land, water and diverse seed can only achieve limited transformation.

For neglected and underutilized species, this message is particularly powerful. Their revival requires a chain connecting farmers and seed custodians → community seed systems → research and characterization → agroecological production → processing and entrepreneurship → markets and consumers → supportive policies. The Caravan helps ensure that the first actors in this chain—the farmers and communities who have maintained this diversity—remain central to decisions about its future.

After ten years of mobilization, the West African Caravan demonstrates that the struggle for food sovereignty is also a struggle for agricultural biodiversity and control over the foundations of food production. Its recurring message—rights to land, water and peasant seeds are a common struggle—has particular resonance at a time of climate change, biodiversity loss and increasing concentration within agricultural input systems. Protecting Africa's indigenous and farmer-managed seeds is therefore not about returning to the past. It is about ensuring that the extraordinary diversity created and maintained by generations of African farmers remains available for future breeding, resilient farming, diversified diets and locally determined food systems.

Related:

10 August 2026. Niger Restored 900,000 Hectares of Dead Desert With Shovels — Half a Million People Now Eat. Niger Restored 900,000 Hectares of Dead Desert With Shovels, Half a Million People Now Eat, proving that sometimes the best technology to save the future is actually centuries old. In the southern Maradi region of Niger, a stretch of barren land that the United Nations once wrote off as "finished" is now thriving. This isn't the result of billions of dollars in foreign aid or heavy machinery; it's the result of an ancient, forgotten farming method called the "half-moon" and "zaï pits," pioneered by a man everyone once called insane.

This video explores how 528 sites in the Sahel are holding three million cubic meters of water, recharging aquifers, and creating life-saving microclimates. We also look at the reality behind the African Union's Great Green Wall project, and how grassroots, shovel-in-hand resilience is successfully pushing back the Sahara Desert.

Neem as an organic pesticide, fungicide, and nematicide for harmful insects and fungal infections

9 August 2026. Interview with  Linda Akeyate Issaka of Ntiligira Enterprise at the World Social Forum of Cotonou/Benin.

Ntiligira Enterprise is a Ghanaian agribusiness based in Tamale, led by Managing Director Linda Akeyate Issaka, that promotes sustainable and organic farming through the local production of environmentally friendly agricultural inputs. 

The enterprise produces neem-based pesticides, neem oil and neem cake, as well as compost, providing farmers with alternatives to synthetic pesticides and fertilizers while creating value from locally available neem resources. 

Ntiligira was selected for the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) Cohort 10 incubation programme and has also been profiled as a green-economy investment project, reflecting its potential to contribute to climate-smart agriculture, soil health and the expansion of biological crop protection in Ghana.

Linda Akeyate Issaka describes Ntiligira Enterprise as a company founded in 2020 to provide organic alternatives to chemical pesticides.

"Ntiligira means my redeemer"

The business specialises in producing neem oil for pest control and neem cake for nematode treatment and soil fertilisation. Additionally, the company engages in small-scale composting to support organic farming systems.

Production Capacity

• Daily output with two machines: 50 to 60 bags (50 kg each) of neem seeds and approximately 450 litres of oil.
• Monthly capacity: 10,000 bags of neem cake (50 kg).
• Batch capacity: Approximately 20,000 bags of compost (50 kg).

Operational Challenges

• She identifies significant barriers to scaling production and reducing costs to compete with inorganic fertilisers. A primary concern is that the price difference between organic and inorganic options discourages farmer adoption.
• The company currently lacks essential machinery such as a chipper truck, water tanker, and a backhoe machine. Acquiring these would allow the business to lower compost prices from 110 cedis per bag to between 70 or 80 cedis. 
• Furthermore, there is a critical need for dedicated cargo trucks to transport seeds from communities; this ensures the organic integrity of the seeds by preventing contamination from chemicals during transit in general market trucks.

Growth Potential

• Despite current hurdles, Linda Akeyate Issaka remains optimistic due to the abundant availability of raw materials in the local region. 
• The primary goal is to secure investment or acquire logistics to meet the high demand from farmers within the organic system.

Related: 

• 21 July. Biosolutions in Afro-Eurasian Agricultural Innovation - The EFARD/GFAiR/CAAE webinar examined the institutional conditions required to scale biopesticides and biofertilizers across Africa, Asia, and Europe
• 1 July. Asia-Pacific Biopesticides Community of Practice This webinar focused on how nature-based pest management and biopesticides can strengthen climate-resilient agriculture across Asia and Africa, with particular attention to dryland farming systems and fragile mountain ecosystems.
• 25 June 2026. The Monthly Talks on Agroecology webinar focused on the growing investment potential of the organic fertilizer sector in Africa as a strategic component of the continent's agroecological transition. 

Agroecology at the heart of the World Social Forum 2026 in Cotonou

8 August 2026. Cotonou and Abomey-Calavi, Benin. The 17th World Social Forum (WSF) returned to Africa from 4 to 8 August 2026, bringing social movements, farmers’ organizations, civil society, researchers and activists from across the world to Benin. 

The Forum was organized around the overarching theme “Governance of natural resources and popular struggles in the face of global crises: what alternatives for peace, social cohesion and sustainable development?” After previous African editions in Bamako, Nairobi, Dakar and Tunis, Cotonou marked the sixth time that Africa hosted the global gathering. 

The main programme included more than 200 self-organized activities and 12 thematic villages at the University of Abomey-Calavi, alongside activities in Cotonou, Ouidah and Porto-Novo.

Within this landscape, agroecology emerged as an important meeting point between debates on food sovereignty, climate justice, biodiversity, land and water, farmers’ rights and alternatives to industrial agriculture. Agroecology was explicitly included in the Forum's thematic axis on Ecological Crises, Climate Justice and Just Transition, which connected the defence of common goods—land, water, forests and biodiversity—with struggles against land grabbing and extractivism and with the promotion of peasant alternatives, agroecology and food sovereignty. The official programme associated this thematic area with dozens of activities and more than one hundred participating organizations.

The Agroecology village

The Agroecology Village provided a particularly relevant space for bringing these interconnected struggles together. Rather than presenting agroecology simply as a set of environmentally friendly agricultural practices, discussions across the Forum situated it within a broader transformation of food systems: strengthening farmers' control over seeds and natural resources, reducing dependence on hazardous pesticides and external inputs, protecting biodiversity and restoring local food systems. This approach also connected agroecology with the political dimensions of food sovereignty and farmers' self-determination.

Several activities reinforced this perspective. La Via Campesina organized discussions on peasant internationalism, including a session on the struggle for comprehensive agrarian reform and peasant agroecology as resistance. The programme emphasized that these struggles are rooted in the everyday realities and aspirations of farmers and rural communities. Another workshop, “Seeds of Resilience: Food Sovereignty and Agroecology,” organized by the World Council of Churches, focused specifically on farmer-led agroecology, seed sovereignty and alternatives to industrial agriculture.

A second major thread concerned the health, environmental and social consequences of pesticide-dependent agriculture. The programme included the screening of the documentary Toxic Harvest followed by discussion, as well as sessions linked to the planned West African People's Tribunal on Pesticides. 

• Toxic Harvest: The Hidden Truth About Pesticides is produced by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in association with the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) and the Women on Farms Project (WFP).
• The initiative, promoted by the Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (COPAGEN) together with other West African civil-society organizations, brought together actors involved in agroecological transition and movements challenging the impacts of pesticides. 

Several debates placed the transition away from hazardous pesticides within the larger struggle for farmers' rights, healthy food and ecological sustainability.

• Ending the Toxic Double Standards: Agroecology and Workers’ Rights for Food Sovereignty - This session builds on the documentary screening of Toxic Harvest and brings together panellists from West Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa
• Plaidoyer sur la réduction de l’utilisation des pesticides chimiques de synthèse en Afrique

The Village also highlighted how agroecology cannot be separated from seed sovereignty and agricultural biodiversity. Farmers' ability to conserve, exchange and develop their own seeds is central both to resilience and to maintaining locally adapted crops and varieties. This has particular significance for Africa's neglected and underutilized species (NUS), traditional crops and indigenous foods, many of which are well adapted to local environments but remain marginalized by agricultural research, markets and policies. Bringing agroecology together with seed sovereignty therefore opens opportunities to reconnect biodiversity conservation with nutrition, local food cultures, climate adaptation and rural livelihoods.

The Cotonou discussions also showed the importance of linking agroecological production to the rest of the food value chain. One Forum session addressed food self-sufficiency from production through processing and regional and international trade to supportive public policies, bringing together farmers, ecological initiatives and women food processors. Such discussions are important because agroecological transformation cannot succeed through changes at farm level alone: processing, markets, consumer demand, public procurement, finance and supportive policies must enable farmers and small food enterprises to turn diversified production into viable livelihoods.

More broadly, the Agroecology Village illustrated why the World Social Forum remains an important space for connecting movements that often work separately. Climate justice, farmers' rights, seed diversity, women's empowerment, youth engagement, food sovereignty, biodiversity and the struggle for land and water all converge in agroecology. The Cotonou Forum therefore helped frame agroecology not simply as an agricultural technique but as a pathway towards more democratic and locally rooted food systems in wh

ich farmers and communities have greater influence over the resources, knowledge and markets on which their livelihoods depend.

The significance of Cotonou lies precisely in this convergence. The Forum's message—“Another world is possible”—found a concrete expression in agroecology: alternatives already exist in farmers' fields, community seed systems, women's processing enterprises, indigenous knowledge and local food markets. 

The challenge after Cotonou is to connect these experiences more systematically with agricultural research and education, investment, supportive public policies and regional and global knowledge exchange, so that agroecology can move from successful local initiatives towards transformation at scale.

Interview

Sawah Agro Business is a Beninese agricultural enterprise led by Adèle Gogoe, specializing in the agroecological production and processing of certified organic purple corn grown mainly in the Atiémé region and the Mono Delta Biosphere Reserve.

Supported by the Delta Mono project, this innovative initiative promotes a maize variety recognized for its nutritional qualities and health benefits. 

There is a diverse range of processed products, including purple maize flour, dried *aklui*, couscous, and maize grain.

As an active member of Benin’s National Network for Agroecological, Organic, Participatory, and Fair Initiatives (ReNABIO), the promoter employs farming practices certified under the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), thereby demonstrating the economic and environmental potential of organic farming in the region.

Product Presentation

Adèle heads the CCPMA (Communal Cooperative of Maize Producers) and the company Sawa Agrobusiness, both specializing in purple maize from Benin that holds PGS (Participatory Guarantee System) organic certification. This maize is valued for its superior nutritional properties—specifically its high iron, zinc, and antioxidant content—as well as its ability to help regulate high blood sugar levels. The range of processed products includes:

• Plain flour and purple flour for pasta and cakes.
• Smooth porridges.
• Gluten-free couscous.

Operational Challenges

Adèle highlights several major obstacles to the development of agroecology and the marketing of purple maize. The primary barrier is consumer purchasing power; consumers tend to favor cheaper conventional products despite the associated health risks. Significant work remains to be done to raise awareness about the nutritional benefits.

Productivity and Yield: Productivity has improved thanks to the Delta Molo project, conducted with the support of Enabel in the Mono Delta Biosphere Reserve.

Prior to 2023, the yield was 800 kg per hectare.

It currently stands at 1,400 kg per hectare. However, this figure remains lower than the 2 to 3 tonnes per hectare achieved by conventional producers, keeping the selling price high.

Future Needs

The goal is to increase yields to make purple maize more affordable for the general population. Adèle is calling on stakeholders in the agroecology sector for support to overcome these technical and economic challenges. How can the increase in yields be accelerated to reduce costs?

Roundtable on Farmer Managed Seed Systems in Africa

6 August 2026. Roundtable on Farmer Managed Seed Systems in Africa at the World Social Forum (WSF) 2026 Cotonou, Benin (4–8 August 2026).

Across Africa, millions of smallholder farmers continue to rely on farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) for their livelihoods, agrobiodiversity and resilience. Yet these systems are increasingly under pressure from the expansion of industrial seed systems, changing seeds markets and evolving regulatory frameworks. 

At the same time, many farmers and civil society organizations alike struggle to distinguish between different types of seed systems and technologies, making informed choices more difficult.

An interactive panel brought together relevant stakeholders to explore how FMSS can be strengthened and safeguarded as a cornerstone of agroecology and food sovereignty. 

The session highlighted the implications of GMOs and hybrid seeds on agroecology and food sovereignty in Africa. Drawing on recent experiences from across the continent, the discussion address seed quality, seed sovereignty, community seed systems, and the role of public policy in ensuring that farmers have genuine choices over the seeds they use.

The session was an open dialogue on how to build and protect seed systems that are transparent, resilient, and accountable to farmers. Participants had the opportunity to share experiences, discuss practical challenges and join collective action to strengthen FMSS across Africa.

Other related side events:

• Femme Gardienne de la semence paysanne
• Discussion consultative du Cadre politique continental pour les Systèmes Semenciers Paysans - L'Alliance pour la Souveraineté Alimentaire (AFSA) a collabore avec la commission de l'Union Africaine jusqu'à la production d'une politique spécifique
• Les systèmes semenciers des paysan(ne)s en situation de crise
• Semences paysannes en Afrique de l'Ouest : résistances, droits et alternatives face aux pressions juridiques internationales

Interview with panelist Omoniyi Françoise Agbodjo

• Omoniyi Françoise Agbodjo is a PhD holder in socio-anthropology specializing in agricultural policies and peasant seed systems in West Africa. Her research and field missions notably focus on the West African Committee for Peasant Seeds (COASP) within the UMR SENS (Knowledge, Environment, Societies) research unit.
• The West African Committee for Peasant Seeds (COASP, or Comité Ouest Africain de Semences Paysannes) is a regional peasant-led network established in 2011. It protects farmer-managed seed systems, promotes agroecology, and defends food sovereignty across West Africa against industrial seed laws and GMO.
• She has field experience with peasant organizations across West Africa (Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Mali).
• She collaborated with CIRAD on strengthening seed systems (SHAWA II project).

She answers the question: "Why are not more researchers attending the Social forum", Which support is needed for the community seeds banks? What is the importance of Intellectual property protection? What are your recommendations for external interventions?

The role of scientific research

• The researcher explains that current research is often funded by conventional organizations.
• This funding limits researchers' interest in agroecology and the right to farmers' seeds.
• A new generation of researchers is emerging with a desire to promote agriculture in a different way.
• Farmers' seeds are presented as an essential genetic, cultural, and nutritional heritage.

Support for community seed banks

• Seed banks require monitoring to verify the quality of their selection and multiplication methods.
• Documentation must adhere to quality criteria defined by the farmers themselves.
• Work has already been carried out in West Africa to document seeds from the field to community seed stores.

Intellectual property protection

• Intellectual property rights should belong to the communities, which define their own protection rules.
• Protection mechanisms need to be structured by scaling up progressively from the village level to the national and African levels.
• There is a real risk of biopiracy if communities do not document their genetic heritage.
• If communities fail to document their resources, third-party organizations will do so for their own profit.

Recommendations for external interventions

• Interventions must prioritize seed protection based on the specific needs of the communities.
• Communities wish to devise their own conservation methods, whether in granaries or community seed stores.
• Living seeds should circulate between the land and the food system rather than remaining stored in a freezer.
• Support should focus on the production, multiplication, and protected documentation of seeds by farmers' organizations.

Related:

5–7 October 2026. The AU Seed Summit is due to take place in Eswatini,  where the AU  farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) Policy Framework and Strategy and Action Plan are likely to be adopted. 

What is decided in this process could shape how African governments recognise, regulate, finance, and domesticate  farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) for years to come. It is therefore imperative that civil society—and especially small-scale farmers, women seed custodians, pastoralists, agroecology movements, and food sovereignty networks—engage urgently, strongly, collectively, and politically in this moment.

The paper argues that the AU  farmer-managed seed systems (FMSS) process cannot be read in isolation from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Annex on plant variety protection (PVP), adopted under the AfCFTA IP Protocol architecture.

While the AU FMSS instruments are still open to advocacy and are largely normative and programmatic, the PVP Annex sits within a stronger treaty-based trade and IP framework. This creates a serious legal and political asymmetry: FMSS recognition may remain soft guidance, while breeders’ rights, PVP enforcement, and harmonised IP rules may move through harder legal channels as countries amend or adopt national PVP laws.

17 – 20 November 2026. 1st Eastern Africa Indigenous Seed Conference - EA-ISC 2026

• Building farmer managed seed system community of practice (COP) For a Resilient EASTERN AFRICA Region.
• Catholic university of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

Why Africa Must Stop Being Just a "Supplier" to Global Brands

14 Aug 2026. Women in Geopolitics - Why Africa Must Stop Being Just a "Supplier" to Global Brands

Why does a continent holding 60% of the world's uncultivated arable land spend a staggering $100 billion every single year importing food? In this masterclass episode of Women in Geopolitics, leading economic and policy experts challenge everything we think we know about African agriculture.

Ambassador Peko explains why Africa doesn't suffer from a production deficit, but rather an ownership deficit. While African women produce up to 80% of local food, the broader economy remains trapped: exporting raw materials like cocoa, cotton, and coffee, only to buy them back as branded Swiss chocolate, Louis Vuitton fashion, and Starbucks coffee.

Learn why true food sovereignty requires owning four critical strategic assets: 

1. Genetics (breaking the global seed monopolies), 
2. Technology (leveraging AI alongside indigenous knowledge like Zai pits), 
3. Infrastructure (combating the tragic 30% to 40% post-harvest food losses), 
4. and original African Brands. 

On-the-ground expert Maureen addressed the stark logistical and structural barriers preventing local producers from effectively connecting to continental markets.

From Forgotten Foods to Foods of the Future: Equipping Africa’s Next Generation of Biodiversity Leaders

4–8 August 2026. Abomey-Calavi, Benin,

Africa’s indigenous and neglected foods are increasingly being recognized not as relics of the past, but as strategic resources for the future. They can contribute simultaneously to healthier diets, biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, stronger local economies and culturally grounded food systems. Yet many of these foods continue to disappear from farms, markets, kitchens, schools and diets, taking with them traditional knowledge about how they are cultivated, prepared and used. 

The GFAiR Collective Action on Forgotten Foods (CAFF) is responding by placing young people at the centre of efforts to rediscover, innovate around and create new opportunities from Africa’s food biodiversity.

 

A youth message from the World Social Forum 2026

This ambition gained momentum during the World Social Forum 2026, where GFAiR and The Food
Bridge vzw convened the side event “Growing the Food Future: Youth, Innovation and Indigenous Food Systems.”

Participants from from Benin, Gabon, Canada, Congo, France, Cameroon, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and other countries and several generations explored one central question: “How can young people transform forgotten foods into the foods of the future?”

The discussion showed that this transformation is already underway. Recipients of the 2025 CAFF grants presented concrete youth-led initiatives: 

• 
  Chimezie Marvellous, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, described efforts connecting elders and young people to preserve Igbo food heritage in Imo State, Nigeria. The project "Connecting elders and young people to preserve Igbo food heritage" responds to the risk that indigenous foods may disappear together with the knowledge of how they are grown, prepared and valued: elders and other community knowledge holders serve as custodians of traditional food knowledge, while young people help carry this heritage forward and make it relevant to contemporary food systems.

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• Israel Oyeyemi presented the youth-led Campus Food Heritage Hub helping young people rediscover forgotten vegetables.
  
  The initiative "CFF Agroschooling Project – Rediscovering Forgotten Vegetables" conducted awareness activities at the University of Ibadan, where students learned about the nutritional, cultural and environmental importance of indigenous vegetables and participated in documenting local species. Young people also received indigenous vegetable seeds and hands-on cultivation training, while a Campus Indigenous Food Festival and Cooking Competition, themed “Preserving Our Indigenous Food Heritage,” brought food knowledge into a more creative and experiential setting. Digital campaigns further promoted traditional vegetables, their recipes and nutritional value. The project covered species including amaranth (Efo Tètè), Corchorus (Ewedu), Malabar spinach (Amunututu), African wild lettuce (Yanrin), bitter leaf, fluted pumpkin (Ugu), waterleaf and several other underutilized vegetables. According to the project’s own reporting, it reached more than 100 students, strengthened youth skills through seed distribution and cultivation, encouraged student-led documentation of food knowledge, and fostered intergenerational learning. In this way, Oyeyemi’s initiative illustrates the CAFF approach of making forgotten foods relevant to a new generation by combining education, cultivation, food culture, documentation and digital communication rather than treating their conservation as a purely agricultural activity.
• 
  Emmanuella Akumtu Cesar highlighted the nutritional potential of Bambara groundnut for young people’s diets. Her project, "Aboboe Revival: A School Farm for Nutrition, Skills and Indigenous Crop Heritage" is located in Korm M/A Basic School, a highly underserved school in Ghana's Eastern Region. This initiative showcases the transformative potential of school farms. Beyond producing food, the project promotes better nutrition, preserves indigenous crops and equips young people with valuable agricultural knowledge and practical skills. Many children depend on school meals as their primary source of daily nutrition, yet the budget allocated for school feeding is only about 2 cedis per child per meal—less than €0.20. Providing nutritious meals under such constraints is incredibly challenging. (see also: From Ghana to Benin: The Journey Begins)
• 
  Joel Teye shared work around indigenous bean species and their reintroduction to consumers in Ghana’s Krobo area. Farming organically within a biodiversity-rich ecosystem presents unique challenges, including adjusting planting schedules to accommodate wildlife migration patterns. To sustain his farms, Joel has also adopted an innovative approach. Alongside the indigenous beans, he cultivates Chinese vegetables for Chinese shops and consumers in the Tema area, creating a reliable income stream. According to him, with the challenge of youth unemployment and a large family, farming offers him the income he needs. His work demonstrates how entrepreneurship and cultural preservation can successfully go hand in hand. (see also: Collective Action on Forgotten Foods (CAFF) mission to Ghana)
• Oluwaferanmi Olatilo presented her wider work on agrobiodiversity and Slow Food Nigeria’s Ark of Taste. Her activities reconnect Nigerian schoolchildren with indigenous foods, food traditions and agricultural biodiversity, responding to the disappearance of nutritious traditional foods and young people’s growing disconnection from food heritage.

Together, these examples demonstrated that young people are already becoming custodians, innovators and promoters of indigenous food heritage.

The resulting Youth Declaration on Forgotten Foods and the Future of Food Systems sends a strong message: preservation cannot mean keeping biodiversity only in seed banks, archives or museums. Food heritage must remain alive—grown, exchanged, prepared, eaten, valued and adapted. The declaration argues that innovation and heritage should reinforce rather than oppose one another, bringing traditional knowledge into dialogue with contemporary science, technology, creativity and enterprise. Above all, young people should be actors rather than spectators, participating in conservation, production, research, processing, entrepreneurship and decision-making.

 

Turning the declaration into action

The declaration identifies a practical agenda for governments, research and educational institutions,
development partners, civil society, businesses and food movements. 

• It calls for indigenous foods to be integrated into education, school gardens and nutrition and culinary learning; for mentorship linking youth with elders, farmers, Indigenous and local communities, researchers, chefs and entrepreneurs; and for greater investment in community seed systems and neglected crop cultivation. It also emphasizes moving beyond conservation towards value creation, through processing technologies, food safety, packaging, certification and quality standards.
• 
  Markets and entrepreneurship are equally important. Public procurement, schools, restaurants and food businesses can create demand for forgotten foods, while young entrepreneurs need grants, finance, incubation, equipment, technical training and market connections. Festivals, digital storytelling and culinary events can make indigenous foods visible and desirable to younger consumers. At policy level, the declaration calls for food sovereignty, agroecology and indigenous foods to be incorporated across agriculture, nutrition, education, biodiversity, climate, trade and rural-development policies.

Cultivating Africa’s next generation of biodiversity leaders

Building on these priorities, CAFF is developing

“Cultivating Africa’s Next Generation of Biodiversity Leaders: Youth Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Collective Action for Forgotten Foods.” 

The initiative is conceived as a leadership and innovation academy for young entrepreneurs, researchers, students, farmers and community advocates working to restore indigenous foods, biodiversity and food sovereignty. Its premise is that young people and women are already innovating around indigenous foods but need stronger access to mentorship, research partnerships, finance and leadership opportunities.

The 2026 CAFF Youth Challenge targeted young people aged 18–30 from Africa and the Caribbean, with projects to be implemented on university campuses or in semi-urban communities; selected participants receive mentorship, capacity building and a project grant.

 The first five selected projects (for 2026) are:

1. Dalis Favour Apollos, Gwomshar Initiative. ROOTS & REVIVAL: A Youth-Led Forgotten Foods Initiative in Plateau State, North-Central Nigeria
2. Wisdom Kofi, with Philomena Blankson (Nutritionist, GIMPA) and Kwame Asante (Food Technologist). From Farm to Feast: Reviving Ghana's Forgotten Grains and Leafy Foods Among Urban Youths
3. Damaris Adhiambo Adoyo & Quinter Aoko Ogwonyo, School of Environmental Sciences, Department of Community Development, Pwani University. Revitalizing Seaweed as a Nutritional Powerhouse in Kwale County, Kenya
4. Enongene Beltin Epie, Youth Environmental & Community Development Advocate, Cameroon. ROOTS REVIVAL: Youth-Elder Action for Forgotten Foods and Community Resilience
5. Suzan Amoit, Makerere University, Uganda. Reviving Forgotten Foods: A Youth-Led Innovation for Orphan Crops

The CAFF Youth Challenge goes deliberately beyond conventional entrepreneurship training. It aims to equip young people as biodiversity champions and custodians of indigenous knowledge, while connecting them with universities, National Agricultural Research Systems, farmers’ organisations, investors, policymakers, civil society, development organisations and diaspora networks. Its objectives combine entrepreneurship with biodiversity stewardship, agroecological innovation, leadership, advocacy, indigenous knowledge, value addition and the creation of a continental network of Biodiversity Champions.

The  the side events was structured around five complementary pillars: 

1. Rediscover Africa’s biodiversity and indigenous knowledge; 
2. Innovate through new products and value chains; 
3. Lead through advocacy and leadership; 
4. Collaborate across sectors; 
5. Transform food systems through collective action on green entrepreneurship and indigenous-food business innovation to branding Africa’s biodiversity, linking research with community innovation, financing nature-based enterprises, accessing diaspora markets and building collective action for Africa’s food future.

From biodiversity conservation to economic opportunity

A particularly important dimension is connecting conservation with livelihoods. CAFF envisages young entrepreneurs learning how to develop sustainable enterprises from indigenous crops, improve processing and competitiveness, build compelling brands around Africa’s food heritage and connect with researchers and investors. Diaspora markets and international opportunities are also part of this approach, alongside financing through grants, investment, crowdfunding and other business-support mechanisms.

This reflects one of the strongest messages emerging from the youth declaration: 

Food heritage must create opportunity. Conservation is unlikely to be sustainable if young people cannot see viable futures and decent livelihoods within it. Indigenous foods therefore need to connect biodiversity conservation with education, research, nutrition, entrepreneurship and markets.

A vision for 2030

The youth declaration ultimately looks towards 2030, envisioning indigenous African foods becoming integral to diets, economies and food systems rather than remaining at their margins. It imagines schools, farms, markets and restaurants where these foods are grown, taught, consumed and valued; young people leading enterprises and innovation; and research and policy recognizing their nutritional, ecological, cultural and economic potential. It also envisages Africa developing the capacity to process, certify and export safe, high-quality indigenous food products, generating livelihoods and economic opportunities for communities and young people.

The CAFF youth challenge provides a pathway for translating that vision into a longer-term movement. 

• Participants at the side event discussed practical entrepreneurial and leadership skills, stronger biodiversity stewardship, research and investment partnerships, improved value-addition and advocacy capabilities, business growth plans and membership in a regional Forgotten Foods Youth Network. 
• The longer-term ambition is a continental movement of young biodiversity champions capable of turning forgotten foods into engines of nutrition, biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, decent employment and food sovereignty.

The message emerging from Benin is therefore not simply about preserving what Africa risks losing. It
is about repositioning indigenous foods as part of Africa’s future and equipping a generation capable of doing so. As the Youth Declaration concludes, the challenge is to move from remembering forgotten foods to rebuilding their place in food systems—allowing the knowledge of the past to inform the innovations of the future and enabling young people not merely to inherit food systems, but to transform them.