[Agroecology and biodiversity are the “only viable solutions”
to climate change, environmental degradation and attempts to “break
away from imperialistic and extractive production systems”. ]
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IN AFRICA, THE “POWERFUL, POLITICAL ACT” OF AGROECOLOGICAL
FARMING IS BEING SUPPORTED BY THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT  
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Amy Fallon
July 14, 2023
Equal Times
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_ Agroecology and biodiversity are the “only viable solutions” to
climate change, environmental degradation and attempts to “break
away from imperialistic and extractive production systems”. _

Although agriculture accounts for about a quarter of Uganda’s GDP,
agroecological produce, particularly in the commercial sector, is in
the minority. Slow Food Uganda is one of the organisations trying to
change that., (AFP/Isaac Kasamani)

 

Red amaranth, which provides a protein boost for pregnant mothers;
spider plant, which is believed to inhibit the growth of cancer cells;
and eggobe, which is said to be handy for treating diabetes and
hypertension.

These are just some of the fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat and
other produce sold by farmers at a recent ‘Earth Market’ in
Nkokonjeru, a trading centre to the east of Uganda’s capital,
Kampala. The weekly market (which, at the time of publishing this
article, is on hiatus) allows local growers to sell
their agroecological produce
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including those that are at risk of extinction, rare or Indigenous –
directly to buyers.

Earth Markets were set up across the east African country by Slow
Food, a global grassroots organisation that promotes “good, clean
and fair food for all”
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Founded in 1989, the network encourages biodiversity, food activism
and the preservation of local food traditions, and the growing of
traditional crops that are slowly dying out as food becomes
increasingly homogenised. Although its headquarters are based in Bra,
north-west Italy, Slow Food is spreading across Africa
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with over 3,600 kitchen gardens shooting up since 2011.

Slow Food’s footprint in Africa was cemented last year when the
organisation elected 36-year-old Ugandan farmer, food activist and
agronomist Edie Mukiibi to head Slow Food globally.

“With the appointment of a young Ugandan agronomist to lead the
movement, Slow Food wanted to draw attention to the African continent
as an expression of the greatest contradictions and environmental
challenges facing humanity,” Mukiibi tells _Equal Times_. He says
that there is also a desire to “recognise the achievements of the
African network with the appointment of an African at the highest
level, shifting the weight from the Global North to the Global
South”.

With severe drought in the Horn of Africa, global food price
inflation, the grain crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, the
multi-faceted impacts of climate change, and not to mention the
lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic, an estimated 20 per
cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa (some 282 million people) face
insecurity and undernourishment, according to the International Food
Policy Research Institute
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more than double the share of any other region.

“These shocks and crises represent a major wake-up call as to the
fragility of our food systems,” says Mukiibi. “But they are
becoming less resilient: biodiversity in food and agriculture is
declining, the climate crisis is becoming more critical, while
food-related health diseases are becoming epidemical.” The key to
turning this around, in fact the only way to deeply change the food
system, is agroecology, insists Mukiibi, which in essence,
means sustainable, socially equitable farming and food systems
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Biodiversity: the foundation of a healthy food system

According to Uganda’s most recent _Annual Agricultural Survey
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just over seven million households, representing around 80 per cent of
the national total, either cultivated land and/or reared livestock in
2020. But the agricultural sector in Uganda faces many of the same
challenges impacting food systems across the world.

“One of our main tasks is to protect biodiversity as the foundation
of our food system. Many local varieties of crops are disappearing,
and widespread chemical use is sending many species into
extinction,” says Mukiibi. He says the Slow Food movement in Uganda
is made up of “ordinary Ugandans who care about the future of food
in this country and the health of its citizens as well as the
environment which is being threatened daily by expanding
monocultures”. They advocate for those “who are affected most by
unfair seed policies, whose land is being grabbed, whose water is
being poisoned by the expanding palm oil farms on the islands of Lake
Victoria, whose native food species are being replaced by single-use
hybrid seeds controlled by large companies, and whose children are at
risk of being fed on unhealthy eggs, chickens and aflatoxin
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maize.”

In Uganda, the new Earth Market in Nkokonjeru brings the country’s
total number of such markets to five
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the global total to 94
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for the markets emerged from local producers who wanted to increase
access to their diverse products and guarantee the survival of
traditional knowledge about Indigenous food species that were
gradually disappearing.

As such, in Nkokonjeru, shoppers can buy Mirandano passion fruit
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which grows well in harsh environments and is highly resistant to
disease, the ancient Kisansa variety
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coffee beans, and Nakitembe bananas
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used in Uganda’s staple dish matooke and also as a ceremonial gift
during weddings.

All of these foods belong to the Ark of Taste
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describes as an online “living catalogue of delicious and
distinctive foods facing extinction”.

Samuel Mwebe, a farmer and father of five who lives close to
Nkokonjeru and has been selling his produce at the Earth Market there,
initially started off as a teacher, but quit in 2008. “There was
more money in farming,” he says. Today, he makes close to 1.5
million Ugandan shillings (approximately €370 a month), which is
significantly more than the 300,000 Ugandan shillings (approximately
€74) that local crop farmers earn on average, according to Slow Food
Uganda.

Green gold and going forward

A bit further south of Uganda, Theresa Bwalya coordinates the Slow
Food Youth Network in Zambia, which has 115 members aged between 18
and 26. The group have worked on various initiatives from setting up
food gardens in schools to establishing a seed bank to conserve
Indigenous crop seed varieties.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have long been banned in Zambia
and agriculture has always been a mainstay of the country’s economy,
but Slow Food is working with local farmers to improve the production
of crops like maize, sorghum and millet. According to Bwalya, in
Zambia – where agriculture comprises about 20 per cent of GDP
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more than half of the country’s workforce – maize “is like the
new green gold”. She continues: “Over the years Zambia’s economy
has depended on extractive industries, on the mining of copper and
other minerals, but we’re seeing an opportunity for us to shift the
dependency on minerals and go towards agriculture. It’s one of the
economic drivers that I would say has the potential to grow Zambia’s
economy.”

Going forward, Slow Food want to create thousands of gardens across
African schools and communities to raise awareness amongst younger
generations about the importance of biodiversity and access to
healthy, fresh food. This will mean establishing new Presidia
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to preserve Indigenous livestock breeds, local fruit and vegetables,
breads, sweets and more) and Earth Markets. They hope these
partnerships will help African farmers, herders and fishers organise
educational activities in schools, as well as getting local
communities to actively participate in agroecology, particularly young
people and women.

But they won’t support the use of GMOs to achieve any of this. With
fast-growing populations, more and more African countries are looking
at GMOs as a way of boosting food production and tackling food
insecurity.

Neighbouring Kenya approved
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crops after a ten-year ban late last year, while Uganda reportedly has
the largest number of GMO crops being tested in Africa, according
to news reports
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But Uganda’s president is yet to sign a law allowing GMOs and
several legislators are said to be planning
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to prohibit them.

With regards to Slow Food’s anti-GMO stance, Mukiibi says that
Africa must not be treated “as a guinea pig for the trial of
experimental methods, nor as a dumping site for technologies that have
failed elsewhere”. He says that agroecology and the conservation of
biodiversity are the “only viable solutions” to climate change,
environmental degradation and any attempt to “break away from
imperialistic and extractive production systems”. He concludes:
“Starting an agroecological garden is a powerful political act.”

_Amy Fallon is a freelance journalist who has reported from Australia,
the UK, Africa and Asia, on a variety of topics, including human
rights and international development. You can see more of her work
at www.amyfallon.com [[link removed]]._

_Equal Times is a trilingual news and opinion website focusing on
labour, human rights, culture, development, the environment, politics
and the economy from a social justice perspective._

* agroecology
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* Slow Food
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* Africa
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* farming
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* Uganda
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* Zambia
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* Kenya
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