Author: Friederike Bauer, on behalf of Sector Project Rural Development at GIZ
End of June 2023 the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture joined the Agroecology Coalition. The coalition, founded 2021 at the UN Food Systems Summit, aims to transform the world’s agricultural and food system.
Agroecology stands for a transformation of agri-food systems. An interplay of different measures enables secure prospects for the future and equal opportunities for farmers. Agroecology changes as a systemic approach farm practices as well as framework conditions. It secures, for example, fair access to land or water. It fosters local or direct marketing channels from which women, rural youth and indigenous groups benefit in particular. The diverse agroecological cultivation systems promote local food cultures as well as a healthy and balanced diet.
By joining the coalition Germany is underlining its support for this forward-looking approach. In recent years, BMZ has significantly expanded its involvement in bilateral cooperation, providing almost 600 million euros in funding for more than 60 agroecology projects since 2014. This includes, for example, a lighthouse initiative in India (more information on the GIZ anchor project SuATI in India can be found here).
On behalf of BMZ, GIZ is supporting sustainable, climate-smart protection and soil rehabilitation in six African countries and India. Such agroecological measures have protected and regenerated soils and ensured the food supply of 1.7 million people through the resulting yield increases (more information on the Soil rehabilitation programme can be found here).
In five knowledge hubs for organic farming in Africa, GIZ promotes and disseminates with its partners knowledge on sustainable agriculture and agroecology through training courses, model farms, radio or village cinemas. The hubs help to improve access to markets and thus distribution channels (more inforamtion on the Knowledge hubs in Africa can be found here).
This shows, agroecology works. It is a promising lever for creating sustainable and equitable agri-food systems and resilient rural areas.
Want to know more about agroecology? Click here.
