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 Green Revolution inputs produced by multinational corporations, such as chemical fertilizers. In Ghana, for example, up to 47% of the agricultural budget is spent on fertilizer subsidies.

But the top-down FISP packages do not support holistic farming practices. To address this, in Ghana CSOs and farmers have come together to form an agroecology network. At regional level they are creating hubs for farmer-to-farmer training and at national level the network is mobilising for the FISP to be expanded to include support for agroecological farming methods.

Peter Gubbels from Groundswell International and Victoria Adongo from the Peasant Farmers’ Association of Ghana share their experiences and discuss how agroecological practices harmonise with nature to preserve the soil and water, providing organic compost and allowing farmers to grow food sustainably.