Defunding Industrial Agriculture and Funding Agroecology

6 - 8 March 2025. AFSA. Shifting Financial Power: Defunding industrial agriculture, Redirecting funding to Agroecology. AFSA hosted a three-day gathering in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together farmers, activists, researchers, and policymakers to develop a continental campaign roadmap aimed at challenging financial flows to industrial agriculture and redirecting funding to #agroecology. 

With African governments increasingly aligning with corporate-driven industrial agriculture, this gathering is a bold step towards shifting the financial and policy landscape in favor of sustainable, farmer-led food systems.

Building on AFSA’s Healthy Soil, Healthy Food initiative, this gathering mapped financial flows, strategized divestment from industrial agriculture, and mobilized action to ensure that agroecology gets the investment it deserves. 

Participants will explored ways to challenge the status quo, push for policy change, and amplify African food sovereignty. 

13/03 AFSA The root of the problem: Defunding Industrial Agriculture and Funding Agroecology 

Agroecology is not just a farming method—it is a movement for food sovereignty that rejects colonial agricultural systems. By strengthening farmer-led seed systems, ecological farming practices, and local food economies, agroecology restores power to African farmers and communities. To break free from this cycle of financial extraction, African governments must redirect agricultural funding to agroecology and prioritize policies that support smallholder farmers. There must also be accountability for international financial institutions that finance land grabs and corporate agribusiness.

In addition, strengthening Pan-African farmer movements is crucial to push for policy changes that benefit smallholder farmers rather than multinational corporations. Tracking financial flows and exposing how industrial agriculture is being funded will also be critical in dismantling the exploitative systems that keep African agriculture dependent on external control.

Related: Call for Proposals for a Study on Capital Flows into African Agribusiness

Terms of Reference (ToR) for a Study on Capital Flows into African Agribusiness: Focus on Multilateral Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) Background and Context The Alliance for Food