The context
Since 1999, Biowatch has been an environmental NGO defending the rights and values of small-scale producers in South Africa, especially women. Biowatch works with a variety of partners, including government and civil society, to ensure that people can feed themselves in a way that respects the environment and agro-ecological principles. It denounces the food system dominated by agro-industrialists, while promoting agriculture that is more respectful of biodiversity and greater food resilience in rural communities.
©Biowatch South Africa
The project
An agro-ecology platform in KZN Province
To support more environmentally friendly projects in South Africa, the NGO has developed a platform for identifying agro-ecological initiatives with around 250 participants. Regular meetings are organised so that participants can share their knowledge and discuss different action plans for spreading agro-ecological practices. Working groups have been set up to address a range of issues directly or indirectly related to agriculture, including policies and regulations (particularly on pesticides), education and research. They organise events that are open to all and provide an opportunity to discuss these different issues. The Pesticides group has been particularly active, creating the hashtag #Unpoison and organising two public webinars: one on pesticide legislation and another on pesticide spraying abuses, where farm workers and affected communities shared their stories…
Watch them here:
Richard Haigh, a farmer from KwaZulu-Natal province, welcomed participants to his Enaleni Farm in December. He cultivates ancient and indigenous crop varieties and breeds local animals (sheep, pigs, etc.) in order to preserve this agrobiodiversity and farmers' know-how.
The aim of the workshop and Richard Haigh's daily work is to revive ancestral knowledge that is being lost, even though it is a vector for greater autonomy for small-scale producers. The NGO Biowatch has also developed a seed production and exchange system that it is trying to promote in local communities.
Enaleni Farm
The results
Biowatch is working in five communities in northern KwaZulu-Natal, representing around 600 small-scale producers, the vast majority of whom are women, to develop sustainable agro-ecological practices.
Since the project began, household food security has increased, traditional seed varieties have been re-introduced and increasingly adopted by local communities, and land, water and other natural resources are being managed sustainably.
The little extras
Biowatch provides a wide range of resources for the general public to help them make the transition to agroecology. In addition to its written documents (monthly newsletters, various reports, etc.), the NGO is now producing a podcast to reach a wider audience.
©Biowatch South Africa
Launched for World Food Day 2020, Good Food Conversation is a podcast about healthy and sustainable eating. It is a series of conversations aimed at celebrating the diversity of what we grow, cook, eat and store, and valuing healthy food for the body and the planet.
You can listen to the podcast at: https://biowatch.org.za/good-food-conversations-with-biowatch/
This factsheet was produced by Perrine Azière and Adèle Guen, LFC volunteers - March 2021.
Last modification : 23 Jan 2024.
Biowatch
Biowatch is a South African NGO that denounces the industrialised food system and advocates agroecology as an ecologically sustainable alternative that protects and enhances biodiversity, empowers farmers and promotes food sovereignty, i.e. local communities controlling their food and the way it is produced.