Very little has so far been done by African governments in pushing ecological organic agriculture agenda forward as compared to conventional agriculture despite its adverse effects to environment, soil and human health.
At least 1.3 million hectares available for organic agriculture within the continent are still unutilized whereby only three percent is being used leaving the entire organic agriculture opportunities with
a market share of approximately 81 billion USD untapped by Africans. Speaking at the World Organic Congress (WOC) here last November on behalf of the AfrONet President, Mr Moses
Aisu, AfrONet Director of Programs said African governments, development partners and the private sector should play a greater role in supporting organic agriculture.
He told representatives from Africa in their caucus that Africans need to be smart enough in moving
organic agriculture agenda forward.
“We shall, at the end, be driving a lot of issues that are very crucial to our lives while reducing poverty, protecting environment, food security and food sovereignty within the continent.
“We have all the potentials in terms of resources like availability of land for production of organic
agriculture, but still very little is being done, multinational companies are investing much
of their financial resources in the supply of chemical inputs to our countries that are degrading our
soil and polluting our water sources, “ said Mr Aisu.
Lately, more funding is being directed to researches of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) which hinder the prosperity of organic agriculture as stipulated in the IFOAM principles. “This trend needs to be reversed at once so that we make this world a place for all creatures,” he added.
He called upon African governments to embrace organic agriculture in their national policies, strategies and programs if they really want to see the contribution of the agriculture sector in their GDPs.
“We haven’t done enough for our countries; we have 1.3 million hectares of organic agricultural
land. Again, Africa stands as the world’s second largest land area, but we have the smallest distribution of organic agricultural land at 3 percent. This is very serious,” he noted.
He told delegates from across the world that, much of Africa’s organic agricultural activity is concentrated in East Africa, with Uganda as the largest organic area (231,157 hectares) and the largest number of organic producers (189,610).
Globally, Uganda has the second largest number of organic producers (190,552) – following India’s 650,000. The East African Community (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda) make up 35per cent of the African organic farming land. Once every three years, IFOAM
- Organics International organizes the Organic World Congress (OWC), hosted by alternate countries, to achieve its vision as the global organic movement and also to provide a platform where organic stakeholders can share their knowledge and expertise and establish valuable partnerships.
OWC is considered as the leading event for the development of the organic sector worldwide, it is
held to promote and celebrate the inevitable turning of global agriculture to organic farming
methods and to measure progress.
you can also republish your blog content on linkedIn pulse and publish it as a document on slideshare; both are powerful high
