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Ecology & Farming
Ecology and Farming
The magazine of the International Federation of
Organic Agriculture Movements
No. 45
August 2009 • 5€
Organic Africa
From Madagascar to Nigeria
Ethiopia to South Africa
The challenge and success of sustainable
organic agriculture in Africa
plus IFOAM pages, Global Monitor, Publications and Events

Imprint
Table of Contents
Ecology and Farming is the magazine
of the International Federation
of Organic Agriculture Movements
(IFOAM).
ISSN No. 1016-5061
IFOAM Head Office:
Charles-de-Gaulle-Str. 5
53115 Bonn
Germany.
Tel: +49 - 228 - 926 - 5010
Fax: +49 - 228 - 926 - 5099
Email: headoffice@ifoam.org
www.ifoam.org
Managing Editor
Richard Sanders
Design
Arnd Zschocke
Sub-editor
Joy Michaud
Letters to the Editor:
All articles and correspondence solely
concerned with Ecology and Farming
should be sent to letters@ifoam.org
Subscriptions and advertisements:
All subscription and advertising queries
should be directed to the IFOAM Head
Office.
Subscription Rate (6 issues/two years):
25 Euros; One may subscribe via the
IFOAM webshop or by contacting the
IFOAM Head Office.
Reprints: Permission is granted to reproduce
original articles providing the credit
is given as follows:
‘Reprinted with permission from
Ecology and Farming, IFOAM, Charlesde-Gaulle-Str.
5, 53113, Bonn, Germany.’
Contributions: Articles sent for inclusion
in Ecology and Farming should be
no longer than 1500 words. They should
be sent by email to letters@ifoam.
org. If this is not possible, a copy can be
faxed or sent by post.
Authors are responsible for the content of
their own articles. Their opinions do not
necessarily express the views of IFOAM.
Cover Photo: Tomato Farmers in
Nigeria by Dr. Olugbenga Adeoluwa
1 Editorial
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IFOAM Pages
Organic Agriculture Can Help Africa
by Andre Leu
Organic Farming - Continued Growth in Africa
by Hervé Bouagnimbeck
Organic Agriculture in Africa – A Case Study of
the EPOPA Project
by Alastair Taylor
Organic Agriculture and HIV/AIDS
by Julia Wright
Mainstreaming Gender in Organic Agriculture
by Edith Kunihira
Ethiopia - On the Road to an Organic Future
by Addisu Alemayehu & Mohammed Kiyar
The Tigray Project:
by Sue Edwards & Hailu Araya
Organic Agriculture in Higher Education in
West Africa
by I.O.O. Aiyelaagbe, P.J.C. Harris, E. Trenchard and J.J. Atungwu
Organic Family Agriculture or Capitalintensive
Agriculture in Africa
by Ibrahima Seck
Innovating with Natural Pesticides to Produce
Organic Cotton In Lira District In Uganda
by Florence Nagawa & Lucy Senya
Organic Agriculture in Madagascar
by Njaka Rajaonarison
Food Production, Biodiversity and Water Use
in South Africa
by Raymond Auerbach
Gaining control
by Michael Hauser
Participatory Guarantee Systems in Africa
by Joelle Katto-Andrighetto & Raymond Auerbach
Global Monitor
IFOAM Publications
Other Publications
Calendar of Events 2009

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The Organic Standard is a monthly journal published by Grolink. Distributed by email as a pdf file
the journal deals with issues concerning international organic standards, regulations and certification.

Ecology & Farming | August 2009
Editorial
This issue of Ecology and
Farming with its focus on
Africa comes at a critical
time, when organic agriculture
is taking center
stage and rapidly growing
across the whole continent.
The world is currently witnessing
two major challenging
situations; climate
change and the global economic
crisis. These two have tested to the limit,
the earlier held assumption by most development
partners that the problems facing African agriculture
require increased use of synthetic fertilizers
and pesticides to tackle chronic food shortages.
In Africa, this techno-fix route had already
been packaged in major, continent-wide programs
framed as the “Africa Green Revolution”.
The cost of synthetic fertilizers has gone up more
than three fold in the last three years and is therefore
not sustainably affordable by the majority
of the rural population in Africa that are largely
smallholder farmers. In addition, fertilizers alone
are no solution for the now increasing effects of
climate change where farmers across Africa are
witnessing unpredictable weather and longer
droughts, along with fragile ecosystems that are
making farming almost impossible and exposing
vulnerable farming communities to even more
uncertainty.
It therefore follows that the solution to the current
farming and food dilemma in Africa cannot
be found in the intensification of use of synthetic
fertilizers and pesticides but in the intensification
of the ecosystem itself, and in the organization
of smallholder farmers for more collective action.
This has always been the basis for organic
agriculture.
There is now a wave of realization across Africa
from policy makers to the farmers and other value
chain actors, that the sustainable and most appropriate
option to the current challenges within
the African limitations, do largely lie in organic
systems. The visible evidence of economic empowerment
to communities and food security
that has been seen in organic projects across
Africa such as the Tigray project in Ethiopia, the
EPOPA project in Uganda and Tanzania and other
organic projects across many African countries
all the way from West Africa (in countries like
Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal etc), to Eastern, Central
and southern African countries (e.g. Zambia,
Zimbabwe, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi are a
clear testimony to this wave of change.)
In countries like Uganda, trade and exports in organic
products have been growing at an average
of 60 per cent a year, and thousands of smallholder
farmers are converting to organic agriculture to
tap into the visible benefits of income generation
through the growing organic trade and sustainable
production of food within the natural resources
available.
Against this background, the organic movement
across Africa is re-organizing and re- discovering
itself as an undisputed pillar in the renaissance of
African agriculture to meet new challenges. The
recently held 1 st African Conference on Organic
Agriculture in Kampala in May 2009 was one of
these bold steps where scientists, private and public
sector players joined hands to position organic
agriculture and trade in Africa at the forefront of
economic growth and trade across the continent.
There is no doubt that with the scientists, industry
players and now the policy makers joining
hands to develop organic Agriculture in Africa,
the sky is the limit for the growth of the organic
sector across the continent. The commitment exhibited
by the stakeholders so far gives real hope
of maintaining the momentum in growth and the
contribution of organic agriculture to solving
the pressing food and agricultural challenges of
Africa.
Moses Kiggundu Muwanga, Uganda
IFOAM Board Member
email: mkmuwanga@nogamu.org.ug
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