Action Towards Sustainable Health, Nutrition, Consumption and Trade
Agroecology Conference Resources
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COMMUNIQUE OF THE 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
AGROECOLOGY TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS IN AFRICA
HELD FROM 18TH – 21ST JUNE 2019,
AT THE SAFARI PARK HOTEL AND CASINO,NAIROBI, KENYA.
Biovision Africa Trust, jointly with World Food Preservation Centre (WFPC) and IFOAM Organics International organized the 1st international conference on Agroecology Transforming Agriculture and Food Systems in Africa with the theme:
Reducing Synthetic Fertilizers and Pesticides by Scaling up Agroecology and Promoting Ecological Organic Trade.
The main goal was to provide a platform to facilitate a conversation on how to transform and establish more truly sustainable food and agriculture systems in Africa. Following the presentations, discussions and recommendations at the Conference attended by almost 500 participants from 20 countries largely from East Africa and partly around the world,a Call to Action was made as presented below:
Reducing Synthetic Fertilizers and Pesticides by Scaling up Agroecology and Promoting Ecological Organic Trade.
The main goal was to provide a platform to facilitate a conversation on how to transform and establish more truly sustainable food and agriculture systems in Africa. Following the presentations, discussions and recommendations at the Conference attended by almost 500 participants from 20 countries largely from East Africa and partly around the world,a Call to Action was made as presented below:
- The Conference CALLS UPON all African Governments to comply with their commitments and in a coherent and coordinated manner align respective policies to the declarations and agreements including Agenda 2063, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)and to implement the AU Heads of States and Governments Decision on Ecological Organic Agriculture of 2011
- The Conference APPLAUDS efforts being undertaken by individuals,civil society organizations, companies and government agencies to promote agroecological transformation that provides diverse,safe, healthy and nutritious food in the face of challenges including climate change, biodiversity crisis and growing demand, and that is inclusive of women, youth and men.
- The Conference REJECTS promotion of harmful practices especially the highly hazardous pesticides, banned harmful pesticides, GMOs and the channeling of rejected export food commodities to Africa.
- The Conference CALLS UPON all key stakeholders to allocate resources to scale up agroecology based interventions to generate safe and innovative alternatives to improve soil regeneration and pest control while working with small scale women, youth and men farmers in promoting and safeguarding farm managed seed systems and indigenous knowledge.
- The Conference URGES all stakeholders in agricultural value chains and related sectors(e.g. health, education, environment, trade and finance)to increase awareness and education on the adverse effects of synthetic pesticides,fertilizers and GMOs on health of humans, animals, plants and the environment and to promote ecological organic trade and consumption of safe, accessible,affordable and acceptable organic products by all.
- The Conference CALLS UPON governments and their relevant institutions, farmers and farmer organizations, development partners and the private sector to avail resources to implement the agreed agroecology agenda and to convene platforms including a biannual African Agroecology Conference for experience sharing, learning and collaboration and thereby build the basis for sustainable, long-term food and nutrition security and poverty reduction.