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How Can Africa Move Beyond Colonial Farming Systems to Achieve Food and Ecological Sovereignty?
How Can Africa Move Beyond Colonial Farming Systems to Achieve Food and Ecological Sovereignty?
Sputnik Africa
Across Africa, smallholder farmers have long relied on colonial agricultural systems like monocropping that have depleted soil health and undermined food... 13.05.2026, Sputnik Africa
2026-05-13T13:04+0200
2026-05-13T13:04+0200
2026-05-13T13:04+0200
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How Can Africa Move Beyond Colonial Farming Systems to Achieve Food and Ecological Sovereignty?
Sputnik Africa
Across Africa, smallholder farmers have long relied on colonial agricultural systems like monocropping that have depleted soil health and undermined food security, prompting agricultural experts and policy advocates to call for a shift toward diversified, regenerative agricultural practices that restore soil fertility and food security.
Decades after independence, colonial agricultural frameworks still hold many African nations captive, systems built to extract wealth rather than create it. Export monocultures and dependence on foreign agrochemicals continue to drive the continent's food economy, directly undermining Africa's pursuit of genuine food and ecological sovereignty. Africa holds over 60 percent of the world's uncultivated arable land, yet hunger persists widely, exposing a crisis rooted not in scarcity but in a food economy that has long served outside interests over African ones. Now, scholars, agronomists, and policymakers across the continent are demanding a decisive course correction: reclaim Indigenous agricultural knowledge, restore biodiversity, and build food systems that put Africa first.African Currents interviewed Dr. Kwaku Onwona-Hwesofour Asante, Research Scientist and Principal Lead of the ACE4ES Project at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Crops Research Institute in Kumasi, Ghana, to explore how regenerative practices like composting, biochar production, and agroecology can reverse soil degradation and advance food sovereignty across the continent. At the heart of his argument is: agricultural waste is not a burden but an untapped resource African farmers can use to rebuild soils and reclaim their food future.Catch the full discussion on the African Currents podcast, presented by Sputnik Africa.Listen to this episode on our website or Telegram.► You can also stream the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Pocket Casts, Afripods, Podcast Addict.► Subscribe to and explore all the episodes of African Currents.
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How Can Africa Move Beyond Colonial Farming Systems to Achieve Food and Ecological Sovereignty?
Across Africa, smallholder farmers have long relied on colonial agricultural systems like monocropping that have depleted soil health and undermined food security, prompting agricultural experts and policy advocates to call for a shift toward diversified, regenerative agricultural practices that restore soil fertility and food security.
Decades after independence, colonial agricultural frameworks still hold many African nations captive, systems built to extract wealth rather than create it. Export monocultures and dependence on foreign agrochemicals continue to drive the continent's food economy, directly undermining Africa's pursuit of genuine food and ecological sovereignty. Africa holds over 60 percent of the world's uncultivated arable land, yet hunger persists widely, exposing a crisis rooted not in scarcity but in a food economy that has long served outside interests over African ones. Now, scholars, agronomists, and policymakers across the continent are demanding a decisive course correction: reclaim Indigenous agricultural knowledge, restore biodiversity, and build food systems that put Africa first.
African Currents interviewed Dr. Kwaku Onwona-Hwesofour Asante, Research Scientist and Principal Lead of the ACE4ES Project at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Crops Research Institute in Kumasi, Ghana, to explore how regenerative practices like composting, biochar production, and agroecology can reverse soil degradation and advance food sovereignty across the continent. At the heart of his argument is: agricultural waste is not a burden but an untapped resource African farmers can use to rebuild soils and reclaim their food future.
"Our colonial and post-colonial systems promoted monocropping and extraction without replenishment. The idea was to produce in large quantities, to support growing industries, and to ensure that there is a system that constantly supplies these industries with certain commodities [...]. There's a growing trend of chemical dependence among our farming population, which has severe consequences on the regenerative potential of the landed resources [...]. Food sovereignty and ecological sovereignty can be achieved when we are united [...]. By collaborating with your local livestock industry or animal production industry, you can actually get a long-term nutrient source to continuously replenish your soil. So there are several benefits of working locally and making use of local resources instead of relying on external inputs, chemical inputs, to see the detriment of soil health and the degradation of soil biodiversity," Dr. Asante said.
Catch the full discussion on the African Currents podcast, presented by Sputnik Africa.
Listen to this episode on our website or
Telegram.►
Subscribe to and explore all the episodes of African Currents.
