Rebuilding Africa's Food Systems from the Ground Up
AFSA is proud to release its newest publication — a landmark, field-grounded account of how farmers and communities across ten African countries are restoring their soils, reclaiming their knowledge, and rebuilding food systems from the ground up.
Across Africa, smallholder farmers are trapped in a familiar cycle: declining soil health, unstable yields and rising dependence on costly inputs. The roots of this crisis are structural — decades of policies promoting synthetic fertilisers have shaped an agricultural culture that treats soil as a substrate to be fed, rather than a living system to be regenerated.
But a different reality is quietly taking shape.
Through the Healthy Soil Healthy Food (HSHF) Initiative — a network of 16 community-based centres across Burkina Faso, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Togo, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa — farmers are demonstrating that restoring soil health is not only possible, but transformative. Using locally made bio-inputs, farmer-led experimentation and peer learning, communities are rebuilding fertility, reducing dependency on purchased inputs, and generating evidence that is shifting policy conversations across the continent.
As AFSA General Coordinator Million Belay writes in the foreword:
“When farmers experiment together, exchange knowledge, and observe results in their own contexts, solutions do not just spread — they take root. They adapt, evolve, and endure.”
This publication documents those solutions. It profiles centre experiences, captures key lessons, and closes with concrete recommendations for governments, research institutions, civil society and donors to invest in and scale what is already working.
Healthy soils are not simply an environmental concern. They are a foundation for dignity, food sovereignty, and the wellbeing of communities across the continent.
