This publication, Achieving Social and Economic Development in Africa through Ecological and Organic Agricultural Alternatives, is a follow up to FAO’s 2013 publication Organic Agriculture: African Experiences in Resilience and Sustainability. It gathers in one volume the plenary papers presented during the Third African Organic Conference that took place in Lagos, Nigeria from 5-9 October 2015. The different chapters document the institutional support that is developing across Africa to ensure that research, markets, and policies can contribute to the positive developmental impact of ecological organic agriculture. Together, they provide information about the status of ongoing initiatives to develop continent wide policy supports, national approaches and local innovations. The topics addressed in this volume reiterate the contribution of farmers, consumers, researchers, educators, public officials, civil servants, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, financiers and other promoters of ecological organic agriculture to reducing food insecurity and rural poverty, by making agriculture, forestry and fisheries more sustainable and productive, enabling the creation of sustainable food systems and increasing the overall resilience of farmers’ livelihoods.