Doreen Badze, a traditional healer and agroecologist, leads the way in restoring Africa’s food sovereignty. From planting seeds to harvesting nutritious crops like spinach and okra, she demonstrates how women farmers are healing the land, empowering communities and nurturing sustainable, ecologically sound food systems.
More than 600 faith leaders across Africa have signed a renewed open letter to the Gates Foundation, demanding reparations for the ecological and social harm caused by industrial agriculture and calling for a just transition towards agroecology.
The campaign is led by the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (Safcei), supported by networks such as the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa.
According to the groups, their updated letter reflects a growing consensus among faith, traditional and community leaders that Africa’s food future must be locally rooted, ecologically sound and socially just.
“The letter continues and strengthens the first direct appeal to the Gates Foundation in 2020, to end funding for the failing Green Revolution model in Africa, which seeks to change African seed laws and industrialise farming production,” the groups said.
Since their first call in February 2021 for the foundation to stop funding Green Revolution initiatives in Africa, the leaders said there has been no adequate response.
“As faith leaders, we have a responsibility as custodians of the Earth and of our faith communities to call out injustice and ensure the equitable sharing of resources for all, particularly the most vulnerable,” the letter states.
While they acknowledged the foundation’s stated commitment to ending food insecurity and poverty in Africa, the signatories expressed grave concern about its ongoing support of Agra.
Agra was founded in 2006 by the Gates Foundation and other donors with the goal of bringing high-yield agricultural practices to 30 million smallholder farming households in 13 priority African countries.
By adopting commercial seeds and inorganic fertiliser, it set out to double crop productivity and incomes while halving food insecurity by 2020.
Gates is by far its largest funder, providing nearly $1 billion since then.
“It provided $200 million recently despite its own commissioned evaluation, which documented Agra’s failures,” the letter said.
Agra’s interventions are further pushing Africa’s food system towards a corporatised model of industrial agriculture, “diminishing our people’s right to food sovereignty and threatening ecological and human health”.
Reliance on synthetic fertilisers and commercial seeds, they say, exposes smallholder farmers to volatile global prices while reducing resilience to environmental shocks. The overuse of chemical inputs diminishes soil fertility, pollutes ecosystems and contributes to pest and disease outbreaks.
“As ecosystems degrade, farmers move onto new land, often lacking the resources to restore it, increasing pressure on natural resources and heightening the risk of ecosystem collapse,” the letter noted.
With most Africans dependent on natural resources for food, fuel, medicine and raw materials, any intervention that threatens ecosystem health or removes local agency is unacceptable, they said.
The letter also highlights the erosion of indigenous knowledge, which is vital for climate adaptation and warns that industrial agriculture’s focus on commodity crops reduces biodiversity, dietary diversity and community resilience.
“The focus on entry of the private sector into food and farming systems in Africa weakens resilience and biodiversity by favouring the production of commodity crops. This immediately reduces the value of the diversity of crops planted and thus the diversity of diets.”
In their open letter, the faith leaders called on the foundation to stop funding Agra and similar programmes and instead support agroecology across Africa.
This includes promoting policies that protect African seed and agricultural rights, funding locally led efforts that centre on indigenous knowledge, investing in organic input supply chains and supporting participatory farmer-led research and community seed banks.
“It’s time for international funders to respect and support locally defined holistic approaches in Africa,” the leaders write.
“As faith leaders, we must advocate for restoring our relationship with the Earth and the community of life on which we all depend.”
The Gates Foundation did not respond to the Mail & Guardian’s enquiries.
Instead of lifting farmers out of poverty, Agra’s industrial agriculture model has deepened dependency, depleted soil fertility, and undermined the sovereignty and resilience of smallholder communities, said Gabriel Manyangadze, Safcei’s food and climate justice manager.
“We call on the Gates Foundation to pay reparations to smallholder farmers affected by industrial agriculture. Hunger is rising, nutrient-rich local crops are declining, and policies undermine farmers’ rights over their own seeds. It’s time to acknowledge harm and invest in restoring Africa’s farmers and ecosystems,” he said.
Manyangadze highlighted how the harm extends beyond economics: “Farmers became highly indebted and, in some cases, had to sell land to repay loans. The programme also expanded land clearing and intensified chemical use, causing biodiversity loss.”
He added that policies promoted under Agra, particularly in Malawi, Kenya and Ghana, criminalise the exchange of uncertified seeds, undermining traditional seed-saving practices.
“It’s like they are taking away from the smallholder farmers and giving it to the industrial farmers, and that is where the concern is.”
Ulfat Masibo, the executive director of the Africa Muslim Women Action Network in Kenya, stressed the urgency: “As faith communities, we have a duty to protect life, dignity, and the land. Funders must invest in repair, uplift women’s leadership, and support local, resilient food systems that nurture rather than exploit creation.”
From rural Zimbabwe, traditional healer and agroecologist Doreen Badze added, “Chemical farming has harmed our soils and communities. Returning to agroecological methods restores the Earth, honours the Creator, and reconnects us to our ancestral wisdom. Reparations are not just financial — they are about healing our relationship with the land and with each other.”
Independent research, including studies by Tufts University, has revealed that the Green Revolution in Africa has failed to deliver promised yield increases or improve rural livelihoods while depleting natural resources and reducing biodiversity.
The 2020 Tufts study found that despite roughly $1 billion in funding, mainly from Gates, there was little evidence of significant progress. Maize yields grew by only 29% over 12 years — the most subsidised and supported crop — while overall staple crop yields increased by only 18%, and undernourishment rose by 30% in Agra countries.
Faith communities are not just moral voices but active agents of change, said Francesca de Gasparis, Safcei’s executive director. “Across the continent, people of faith and traditional leaders are standing together to defend life and the integrity of the land.
“With over 600 signatories — approaching 1 000 when including supporting organisations — this is a united call for reparations and a shift toward agroecology. Funders, governments and policymakers must listen and act,” she said.