The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 launched a social media campaign on Agroecology for Climate Action. The campaign will also observe the occasion of Earth Day 2020, which will be internationally celebrated on April 22.

Dr Chris Macoloo, AFSA Chairperson

The campaign will be live from April 21 to 23 on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The official hashtag for the campaign is #Agroecology4Climate.

AFSA launched policy advocacy endeavour in 2019, during the first Africa Climate Week in Accra, Ghana championing agroecology as an African solution to the climate crisis. The major purpose of the drive was to establish agroecology as a key policy response to the climate crisis that is negatively impacting Africa.

The social media campaign intends to mobilise and engage with the digital community in Africa and establish agroecology as the real deal to feed Africa and cool the planet.

AFSA Chairperson, Dr Chris Macoloo, emphasised the challenge we face, saying: “Africa is the continent hardest hit by climate change while contributing the least to its cause. Drought, land degradation and ocean-temperature-rise threaten the livelihoods of many millions of African farmers, pastoralists and fishers. Agroecology mitigates and adapts, putting carbon back into the soil, and provides innovative ecological solutions to meet the climate challenges.”

Dr Million Belay, General Coordinator of AFSA, said, “Holding a social media campaign on Agroecology for Climate is of urgent importance to AFSA. This is to quickly adapt to the new challenge that the coronavirus pandemic presented in communication as well as inject the voice of urgency to deal with the industrial agriculture, which is the root cause of the COVID 19 and the climate crisis.”

AFSA aims to establish agroecology as the priority African-led solution to the climate crisis.

The three-day social media campaign intends to:

Promote agroecology as an African-led solution to climate emergency.

Establish agroecology as a modern, scientific, and viable farming system that feeds Africa with culturally appropriate, healthy, and nutritious food.

Establish agroecology as the most ecologically friendly farming system that works with the environment, nurtures biodiversity, and helps mitigate climate crisis.

Bridget Mugambe, AFSA Programme Coordinator, said: “Agroecology is a reverse response rejecting the industrial monoculture agriculture that contributes more than 90% of greenhouse gas emissions, degrades the environment, depletes biodiversity, erodes diverse cultures, and only feeds less than 30 percent of the world population.

“Campaigning for agroecology is campaigning for healthy and sustainable food systems while celebrating the farmers that feed 70% of the population with less than a quarter of all farmland.”

The online campaign will join a Twitter storm on April 22 commemorating World Earth Day. It was described as an ideal day to speak of “the greatest bountiful gift that nature provides, our ability to farm and feed ourselves. We will join citizens of the world in their quest to make the human enterprise care and act towards a harmonious future that works for all life forms on earth.”