Every year on 22 April, the whole world celebrates the Earth Day. Land is the basic resource, essential for food and life for humans and animals. Land is a common good that must be preserved. The degradation of the land has repercussions on the whole society: producers and consumers. Today, the problem of the climate and food crisis is acute on the African continent. It is reflected in temperature disturbances, floods, drought, the proliferation of predators such as insect pests, the loss of biodiversity and food security.
Excessive exploitation of the land and the intensification of the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides are destroying the natural resources of the land and rendering it incapable of regenerating. Sustainably preserving the land for healthy and sustainable food is a major challenge.
Meeting this challenge requires the adoption of good agricultural and livestock production practices. It also calls for policy measures to support the sustainable adoption of practical solutions that preserve and renew the natural potential of the land.
It is high time that African governments and civil society organisations question industrial agriculture and mobilise for agroecology as the sustainable agricultural system that gives good and sustainable life to the land. Feeding the earth well so that it feeds the plants and the plants feed people and animals. This is the concept behind Produce Without Destroying.
This mobilisation is in response to the appeal launched by the Inades-Formation network through the campaign called « Conscience AlimenTERRE ». This campaign was launched on 25 March 2021 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. It will be implemented in the network’s countries of intervention and where the partner platforms are active.
This campaign reminds us of the problems of pesticides and chemical fertilisers in relation to soil degradation, pollution, toxicity and the health of farmers and consumers. The campaign calls for citizen mobilisation and policy measures to promote agroecology as the most nature-friendly, environmentally friendly, economically viable and socially just solution to the food and climate crisis in Africa.
The celebration of Mother Earth Day reminds us that agroecologically based food systems must be made the most urgent and critical policy priority for Africa in the run-up to COP-26 and beyond.
It is also an ideal opportunity for all actors mobilised in the implementation of the United Nations Decade for Family Farming (UNDAF 2019-2028). To this end, the
To this end, the celebration of this day deserves to be included in the national action plans for the implementation of the objectives of this agenda 2019-2028.
Thus, « Produce Without Destroying » remains an issue and a challenge. It is the key to healthy and sustainable food for all.
Mr. Baridomo Pascal,
Strategic Advisor on Sustainable Systems Development,
Advocacy Officer at the General Secretariat of Inades-Formation
Illustration image: by Bela Geletneky from Pixabay
