𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐲 | 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐀𝐅𝐒𝐀 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 In a powerful message marking World Food Day 2026, Million Belay (PhD), General Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), warns that Africa is facing three crises at once: a powerful El Niño threatening millions with hunger, the war in Ukraine disrupting global grain supplies, and the war in the Gulf driving up fertiliser and fuel costs. African farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and families are paying a devastating price for crises they did not create. Yet, as Dr. Belay stresses, “These crises are not creating Africa’s vulnerability. They are exposing it.” While wealthier nations can mobilise resources to protect their farmers, millions of African families remain exposed to rising food prices, failed harvests and deepening hunger. Dr. Belay argues that Africa’s vulnerability is neither natural nor accidental. It is the result of generations of colonial agricultural policies, structural adjustment programmes, dependence on imported food and fertilisers, mounting debt and international rules that limit Africa’s ability to shape its own food systems. These forces have weakened local production, dismantled public protections and left African agriculture vulnerable to decisions and disruptions thousands of kilometres away. The problem is not Africa’s inability to feed itself, but a system that has systematically undermined its ability to do so. The current crises expose the urgent need to confront these structural injustices rather than repeatedly respond to their consequences. Reflecting on this year’s World Food Day theme, “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow,” Dr. Million calls for a fundamental shift towards food sovereignty. He urges African governments and international partners to act early against climate shocks, rebuild public food reserves, invest in agroecology and healthy soils, protect farmers’ seed systems, strengthen local food production and markets, cancel unjust debt, and restore Africa’s freedom to shape its own agricultural policies. Africa has the land, the knowledge, the seeds and the farmers to feed itself. What it needs is control over its own food systems. His message is clear: the next climate shock, war or global price crisis will come. Africa must be prepared, nourished by its own farmers and strengthened by food systems it controls. Read the full World Food Day 2026 statement afsafrica.org/a-world-food-d… #WorldFoodDay2026 #FoodSovereignty #Agroecology #AfricaCanFeedItself #ClimateJustice

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭 || 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 In this episode of The Battle for African Agriculture Podcast, Dr. Million Belay speaks with Daniel Mukiibi, a Senior Agricultural Inspector with Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. With around ten years of experience in agricultural inspection, Daniel offers a rare look inside the systems that govern what agricultural products are allowed to move across borders. At Busia, one of the major gateways between Uganda and Kenya, inspectors deal with fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses, seeds, agrochemicals and other agricultural commodities, with agricultural consignments sometimes reaching around 200 trucks in a single day. The discussion explores some of the difficult questions hidden behind everyday cross border food trade. Agricultural inspection depends heavily on permits, certification, visual inspection and government documentation, particularly when seeds and genetically modified organisms are involved. Daniel explains that there are currently no GMO testing facilities at the border itself, meaning officials rely on documentation and state assurances when determining whether consignments were produced through conventional breeding. The conversation also exposes another practical challenge facing regional food trade: perishability. Fresh produce must move quickly, yet cold storage and refrigerated transport remain limited, especially for smaller traders. The episode also examines what these border systems mean for agroecology and the control of agrochemicals. Daniel expresses strong support for agroecological production because of its reduced reliance on harmful chemicals and its perceived nutritional and environmental benefits, while noting that agroecological products currently receive no special treatment during border clearance. On agrochemicals, he explains that formally imported products must be registered and permitted before entering Uganda, but acknowledges that porous borders and smuggling remain pathways for counterfeit and unregistered chemicals. Subscribe. Share. Engage. YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=GH7rYDkQ… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/41Q… Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/f3…

A𝐅S𝐀 𝐂o𝐧g𝐫a𝐭u𝐥a𝐭e𝐬 𝐭h𝐞 𝐑u𝐫a𝐥 𝐖o𝐦e𝐧’𝐬 𝐀s𝐬e𝐦b𝐥y o𝐧 𝐭h𝐞 𝟐0𝟐6 R𝐢g𝐡t L𝐢v𝐞l𝐢h𝐨o𝐝 𝐀w𝐚r𝐝 The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) extends its warmest congratulations to the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA), one of its core members, on being named a 2026 Right Livelihood Laureate. The Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” honours RWA “for organising rural women across Southern Africa into a united force defending land, seed and bodily autonomy against corporate and patriarchal dispossession.” The recognition belongs to a movement built from the ground up. Since 250 rural women founded it in Limpopo Province, South Africa, in 2009, RWA has grown into a self-organised movement of more than 178,000 small-scale farmers in eleven countries: Angola, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Through its flat, volunteer-led structure and its Agroecology and Feminist Schools, RWA advances feminist agroecology and food and seed sovereignty across the region. It has established 24 seed multiplication sites and documented hundreds of Indigenous seed varieties, protecting farmer-managed seed systems from commercialisation and strengthening communities’ resilience to climate shocks. The movement’s collective voice helped secure Zambia’s 2016 law mandating equal land allocation to women and Eswatini’s landmark 2018 Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill. Dr Million Belay, General Coordinator of AFSA, said: “Our hearts are full today. We congratulate our sisters of the Rural Women’s Assembly on this richly deserved recognition. For years, RWA has shown all of us what food sovereignty looks like when it is built by the women who grow Africa’s food, save its seeds and hold its communities together. This Award honours every woman farmer who has stood her ground for land, seed and dignity. It also sends a message to social movements across Africa: our struggles for agroecology, for justice and for control over our own food systems are seen, they matter, and they are bearing fruit. The future of African food is being sown, patiently and collectively, by rural women.” For AFSA and its members, this Award affirms a conviction we share: food sovereignty is inseparable from women’s rights to land, seed and bodily autonomy, and lasting change grows from people organising together. RWA’s journey, in the words of its Regional Coordinator Mercia Andrews, shows that  “no single voice moves a mountain; it is the patient, collective weight of thousands of rural women organizing together that has shifted what was once thought immovable.” AFSA is proud to stand alongside RWA and joins the global community in celebrating this achievement. The 2026 Laureates will be honoured at the Award Presentation in Stockholm on 1 December 2026. afsafrica.org/blog/afsa-cong…

Africa’s Green Revolution threatens traditional foods aje.news/zjq5v6