"We reveal how colonial histories and ongoing colonialities of power, knowledge, being, and nature continue to shape the character and form of agriculture in both countries, running counter to the needs of agroecological smallholder farmers and their ways of knowing and being."

The article examines how seed laws that implicitly support the uptake of modern crop varieties, including genetically modified (GM) and gene-edited crops, may lead over time to the contamination of smallholder fields and displacement of local, open-pollinated maize varieties. Using the case of South Africa, where GM crops have been grown for several decades, the researchers preview implications for Malawi, which passed a seed act in 2022.

The piece concludes with a call to action to support food and seed sovereignty, agroecology, and farmers' collective knowledge and innovations for an "ecologically secure future for African smallholders and the lands, diversity, and cultures of which they are custodian."

Rachel Bezner Kerr is director of Einaudi's Institute for African Development. She will moderate this year's Lund Critical Debate, Getting to Climate Justice: A Global Approach, on April 11.

Read the article

Featured in World in Focus Briefs