Written by Joyce Chimbi, a cohort three graduate of grantee partner ESAFF Uganda’s Agroecology School for Journalists & Communicators. Agroecology Fund supports this initiative with the aim of building the capacity of journalists and communicators to write and report on agroecology in their communities.
Agroecology Fund’s African Learning Exchange on Agroecology Economies gathered more than 150 people representing organizations working towards agroecological food and nutrition sovereignty. It was an opportunity to learn more explicitly from Agroecology Fund grantee partners in Africa about what they are doing, how they are doing, and to learn from their success stories about how their community-led solutions might be replicated in different contexts. This rich, in-person gathering was also a chance for partners to brainstorm about agroecology as a business and enterprise. The backdrop of the exchange was Kufunda Village – Kufunda means learning in Shona, the language spoken by 70% of the people of Zimbabwe. The village, on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe, is a learning center with a focus on vibrant and healthy local communities.
At an early gathering, Angela Cordeiro, an agronomist and Co–Director at Agroecology Fund spoke about the importance of thinking about agroecology simply beyond production. She encouraged the participants to think more expansively about agroecology, and stressed the need for movements to create economies and tap into the significant potential for positive socio-economic development in local communities. The power inherent to transforming structures is a significant marker of why grassroots agroecology movements hold the possibility to transform global food systems—and why Agroecology Fund centers these movements in their grantmaking.
“The root of the word economy, or its meaning, is to take care of the house or to take care of your home. The economy has been kind of controlled by one way of taking care of the home and we are here to brainstorm, to exchange ideas on how we are trying to develop new ways of taking care of the home through innovative approaches such as the participatory guarantee system, territorial markets, commercialization as well as financial mechanisms,” Cordeiro said.
Agroecology Fund grantee partners from across the African continent reflected on what the word economy means in their diverse languages and cultures, and on the positive socio-economic benefits associated with agroecology. In the Democratic Republic of Congo where the Lingala language is spoken, ekonzo means economy, in Swahili the economy translates to uchumi. For Yoruba people in Nigeria it is okowo, in Zambia it is phindu and in Dagara a language spoken in Burkina Faso, economy translates to na-bomo.
The discussions that were held on the economy and agroecology, and how these concepts translate in different languages highlighted that there can be many different ways of commercializing foods produced in synchronicity with nature. Conversations explored market practices that are favorable to the peasant farmer and peasant families in rural and urban areas, as well as the revitalization and investment in larger territorial mass markets.
Dioma Komonsira, an action-learning and advocacy coordinator for Groundswell International West Africa – an Agroecology Fund grantee partner– said that there is no contradiction between building a business around agroecology and upholding social values.
“We will soon be publishing a survey that we did focusing on 200 to 300 women-led agroecological enterprises in Mali and Senegal. There is a big and untapped market for agroecology products, bigger than the products available at the moment. But at times the women are limited in their production capacities due to challenges in accessing financing. We are seeing that there is potential in women organizing themselves in cooperatives. There is also an urgent need to train women or peasant farmers in general in how to develop a business plan,” he said. The Agroecology Fund is currently supporting 15 African networks that support emerging enterprises to create business plans.
Some of the innovative practices being used by women peasant farmers to raise much needed financing are anchored in social and solidarity economies – group savings or village fundraising strategies to help address the most pressing needs they face as a community.
Among other practices shared by grantee partners during the exchange included the Kenyan and Senegalese women’s solidarity funds in the form of rotating microcredits called “solidarity calabashes”. These funds are a way to mobilize local capital through donations from the local community to address their most pressing needs, including hunger.
From these conversations emerged ideas about how agroecology economies can thrive within varied communities, utilizing similar ideas and frameworks adapted to each local context as the respective communities see fit. The connections made among grantee partners is one of the major benefits of these learning exchanges. There is power in connection, and the mycelial-like network of grassroots agroecology movements grow stronger with each engaged interaction.