AFSA Marks International Seed Day by Advancing the ‘Seed Is Life’ Campaign

Posted April 25, 2025

Our Seeds, Our Life, Our Future: Promoting FMSS and Resisting Repressive Seed Laws in Africa

April 24, 2025 — The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) proudly announces the start of a three-day social media campaign under the banner Seed Is Life, running from April 24–26, 2025, to commemorate the International Day of Seeds.

This year’s campaign, themed “Our Seeds, Our Life, Our Future: Promoting FMSS and Resisting Repressive Seed Laws in Africa,” aims to spotlight Farmer-Managed Seed Systems (FMSS) and galvanize a continent-wide movement to resist the rising tide of corporate-driven, repressive seed laws.

Through this campaign, AFSA reaffirms its unwavering commitment to defend seed sovereignty, uphold farmers’ rights, and protect Africa’s rich agricultural heritage from corporate capture. Over three days, AFSA will flood social media platforms with compelling messages, videos, graphics, and testimonies, spotlighting the irreplaceable role of farmers’ seeds in feeding Africa and sustaining agricultural biodiversity.

The campaign will promote FMSS as the foundation of food sovereignty, sustainable food systems, celebrate farmers’ seed-saving practices, and warn against the corporate capture of Africa’s seeds through restrictive legal frameworks.

“Our seeds are our life and our future,” said AFSA Chairperson Hakim Baliraine. “Across Africa, 80% of the food we eat is grown from farmers’ seeds, exchanged through generations. Yet today, unjust seed laws threaten to criminalize our heritage, our knowledge, and our right to nourish ourselves. We are raising our voices to defend our seeds, our sovereignty, and our survival.”

AFSA’s Seed Is Life campaign builds upon its 2024 milestone launches, where AFSA officially unveiled the continental Seed Is Life Campaign and called on African Union Commission and African governments to restore and strengthen FMSS for food sovereignty and resilience. (See: AFSA launches campaign and AFSA calls on governments).

Throughout the campaign, AFSA will deliver key messages:

Farmers’ seeds feed Africa: FMSS provide 80-90% of seed for food crops in Africa, yet they are under attack.

Seeds are culture, resilience, and sovereignty: Saving, exchanging, and planting diverse seeds are acts of survival, tradition, and innovation.

Corporate seed laws must be resisted: UPOV-aligned seed laws and PVP regimes seek to outlaw farmers’ seeds and criminalize seed sharing.

FMSS must be legally recognized and supported: Seed sovereignty means farmers define, manage, and govern their own seed systems.

“This campaign is a call to action,” emphasized AFSA General Coordinator Dr. Million Belay. “It is a call to remember that without farmers’ seeds, there is no agroecology, no food sovereignty, no climate resilience. Africa’s future depends on safeguarding the seeds of our past and present.”

AFSA invites farmers, consumers, activists, policymakers, and allies worldwide to join the campaign online and offline. The movement to defend Africa’s seeds and farmer-led solutions must be stronger than ever.

“Farmers across the continent are rising up to reclaim their Rights to protect and nurture seeds—as they have done for millennia” added AFSA Seed Working Group Chair and Advocacy Coordinator of SKI, Frances Davies “Seeds are not merely commodities to be privatized; they are living heritage. Farmers Managed Seed Systems (FMSS) are complex ecological and socio-economic systems. They form the foundation of our entire food system, and are vital for preserving genetic diversity, adapting to climate change, and securing the future of life. We need dedicated policies to recognize and support these systems, rather than criminalizing them to protect the market interests of corporate agribusiness”

Follow AFSA’s three-day campaign on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn with hashtags: #SeedIsLife #FMSS #SeedSovereignty #OurSeedsOurFuture #FoodSovereignty.

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Kirubel Tadele