Stakeholders have called for more investment in Organic and Agroecology research to ensure food security, sustainability, adaptation and mitigation of climate change effects in Africa.
They made the call at the three day first African Organic Research Conference (AFROREC) organised by the Network of Organic Agriculture Research in Africa (NOARA) and held in Ibadan from 6the to 8the December 2022.
The theme for the conference was ‘Unfavorable Climate and Food
Systems in Africa: Organic and Agroecology Solutions’.
Ernest Aubee, Chairman Regional Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) said heavy investment in Organic Agriculture research will ensure practical results and data that can stand the test of time, which will lead to the progress of the sector in the continent.
“Organic Agriculture is a multi-billion dollars business that needs heavy investment to tap into the benefits it provides.
“We need to also invest in human capacity and infrastructures like reference laboratories where we can have a one stop test of organic agriculture produce and products.
“Organic agriculture has rules which are stringent, therefore, a global standard must be followed to always be on top of the game.
“We all have our roles to play to harmonise our positions and build strong partnerships across all levels within the continent, if we must have our shares in the organic market”.
Aubee, a retired Head of the Agriculture Division of ECOWAS, said West Africa had a lot of catching-up to do with other parts of the world in terms of policies and implementation.
“The ECOWAS Commission has the ECOWAS Agriculture policy which started from 2015 to 2025 and the key objective of this policy is to enhance food and nutrition security in the ECOWAS member-states- 15 countries in all.
“Through organic agriculture, we can increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our members-states.
“That is, we can improve economic performance because organic agriculture is currently a multi-billion dollar business that is growing fast,” Aubee said.
Earlier, Dr Olugbenga AdeOluwa, the Continental Coordinator of NOARA said the conference aimed at providing an avenue for farmers, researchers and stakeholders in the value chain to identify needs and the available solutions.
“Most times our farmers are used to researchers coming to tell them their findings but this conference is about everybody being at a roundtable.
“Farmers have something to present and researchers also have something to present as do policy makers, Journalists and those in the sector’s value chain,” Adeoluwa said.
Prof. Simplice Vodouhe, an organic agricultural expert with 30 years experience from Benin Republic said the conference was organised to harness the various researches and technologies from researchers into proper organic agriculture farming.
“The conference is very important because initially we did not have the technology for developing organic agriculture.
“We started more or less from scratch; although our parents were not too far from organic agriculture, but to practise organic agriculture properly, there is a need for technology.
“People are developing technology that is not being captured and we think that this conference, which is the first such continental conference, is very important.
“Developing good technologies that can be shared among ourselves in the field of organic agriculture will promote and improve the practice of organic agriculture,” Vodouhe said.
The award from the West African Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOA-I ) in Collaboration with the West Africa Organic Network (WAFRONET ) was in recognition of his dedication and remarkable commitment towards the development of Organic Agrculture and Agroecology in the sub-region.
