Some stakeholders in the agriculture sector are urging government to invest in agroecology. Agroecology is the use of environmentally sustainable practices in food production.

Speaking on the sidelines of a national policy dialogue on agroecology, National President of the Peasant Farmers’ Association, Wepia Awal Adugwala emphasised that agroecology is among many alternatives to improve agriculture.

“Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, there has been a disruption in the supply chain, fertilisers were not coming and the few that were on the market were expensive. The implication was that farmers who couldn’t afford the fertiliser had to reduce their farm which led to a reduction in production. It is not surprising that last year, a greater component of inflation was driven by food prices. To prevent a recurrence, we can tap into the indigenous knowledge of our forefathers who were engaged in sustainable farming at a lower cost and that’s why promoting agroecology at this time is very important,” he said.

The Directorate of Crop Services at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture through the ECOWAS Agroecology programme in collaboration with the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development and the Peasant Farmers’ Association organized a National Policy Dialogue on Agroecology. National correspondent of ECOWAS Agroecology programme, Kingsley Agyemang indicated that his outfit aims to implement initiatives targeted at addressing climate change hence investing in agroecology.

“One of the outputs of the ECOWAS Agroecology programme is a charter for National Consultation Framework. ECOWAS expects all member countries to collaborate under this framework to champion agroecology issues,” he said.

Other donor partners are the European Union, German corporation and 11th hour project of the Schmidt Family Foundation. Program manager of the 11th hour project Maggie Nyce said, “agroecology is both a science and production practices but it is a social movement and it is really focusing on how farmers are the centre of transition. Because farmers play a vital role, we need to as a community, acknowledge farmers and compensate that.”

Agroecology brings solutions to multiple Sustainable Development Goals like zero hunger, food security and climate change resilience.