OPINION - Africa-France: Agroecology in the service of food sovereignty

Published on the Les Échos website on March 10, 2023 – Strategies, if supported and scaled up, would enable the development of sustainable agricultural systems and better control by Africa of its food destiny. However, they are insufficiently supported, emphasize Matthieu Brun, Samuel Diéval and Olia Tayeb Cherif. 

For three years now, global prices for agricultural commodities and inputs have been soaring, influenced by numerous factors. The Russo-Ukrainian conflict was not the trigger, but it has exacerbated this crisis. These price shocks, which are likely to persist, are increasing pressure on food systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Family farming is heavily impacted by a lack of access to fertilizers and by inflation, which has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic. This translates into significant constraints on producers' incomes, their access to food, and their capacity to produce. All of this occurs in a context of the continent's high vulnerability to climate change and conflict.

Yet, farmers continue to produce and are implementing adaptation strategies. Farmer organizations highlighted this in a survey conducted by Afdi and the FARM Foundation. By leveraging the strengths of Africa's diverse agriculture, these strategies are resulting in reduced production costs and investment risks. For example, producers are seeking to increase their reliance on local production of inputs and food for their consumption.

Producers and those who support them, particularly their professional organizations, are pursuing a dual objective: resilience and autonomy. Adaptation solutions, if supported and scaled up, would make it possible to develop sustainable agricultural systems. However, these strategies are insufficiently supported. French and European development aid stakeholders, as well as those in the agricultural and food sectors, have the opportunity to position themselves to support these transitions, particularly via responsible co-investments. These must be part of the policies implemented by African governments.

The current period, beyond the considerable damage it causes, offers a major opportunity for the future of Africa-Europe relations: to bring together two political agendas, that of food sovereignty and that of a structural agroecological transformation.