Ensuring agricultural resilience in the north African region:

FARMER SEEDS AS A SOLUTION TO MAJOR CRISES

Auteur: Mohamed Coulibaly
Edition: Imen Louati, PhD
Translation from French to English: Ahlem selmi

This study analyzes the legal framework for seed activities in North Africa, with a focus on Farmer Seed Systems (FSS). It assesses the capacity of the FSS to strengthen the resilience of farmers in the region to climate challenges and other types of shocks.

The aim of the study is to contribute to the emergence of an alternative agricultural project to the model imposed on North African countries since the 1950s because of colonization and perpetuated by the neoliberal policies of international financial institutions supported by the doctrine of food security and agricultural «modernization».

The imposed model based on industrial agriculture has shown its limits and different initiatives are emerging for a fundamentally different model, based on the diversification of farms and agricultural landscapes, the replacement of chemical inputs, the optimization of biodiversity and interactions between different species, the strengthening of farmers livelihoods, etc., a model rooted in the respect of human rights and having as a guideline food sovereignty.

The study presents the elements of a legal framework allowing for the recognition of the FSS as one of the pillars of this agricultural model, the protection of the rights of farmers to freely produce their seeds and to use them in their networks and on local markets.

The legal framework proposed by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) for the recognition and promotion of FSS and the protection of biodiversity inspires these elements. They are also based on other initiatives such as the practical manual developed by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights on the right to seeds in Africa in the context of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and People Working in Rural Areas (to be published in 2023).