In August 2018, the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) and the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) hosted a speak-out for SADC smallholder farmers in Windhoek, Namibia, on Farm Input Subsidy Programmes (FISPs).

FISPs are government agricultural programmes that promote the use of Green Revolution inputs produced by multinational corporations. Farmers were not properly consulted about their introduction and felt powerless to refuse them. They were also led to believe that FISPs would make inputs cheaper and improve soil fertility.

However, as documented in EXPERIENCES of FISP, farmers soon realised that these programmes were problematic. Not only did the inputs turn out to be more expensive but the hybrid seeds and chemical fertilisers offered through the FISPs reduced yields and soil fertility. The system also fostered corruption and led to increased farmer dependency.