The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) has launched a vigorous three-day “Seed Is Life” campaign to mark International Seed Day, amplifying its defense of traditional seed systems against corporate encroachment.

Running from April 24-26, the initiative spotlights how Farmer-Managed Seed Systems (FMSS) sustain 80-90% of Africa’s food production while warning against restrictive seed legislation favoring agribusiness interests.

Under the theme “Our Seeds, Our Life, Our Future,” the campaign combines digital activism with policy advocacy, flooding social platforms with farmer testimonies and infographics that reveal how seed privatization threatens food security. AFSA Chairperson Hakim Baliraine emphasized the stakes: “Our ancestral seeds feed nations, yet repressive laws now criminalize generations of farming knowledge. This is a fight for survival.”

The push builds on AFSA’s 2024 continental campaign launch, which petitioned the African Union to legally recognize FMSS as climate-resilient alternatives to commercial hybrids. At stake, experts argue, is control over Africa’s agricultural future: while corporate seed laws like UPOV-protected regimes criminalize seed sharing, indigenous systems have sustained biodiversity through droughts and pests for millennia.

“Farmers’ seeds are living libraries of adaptation,” said AFSA’s Dr. Million Belay, noting their role in maintaining 90% of crop diversity lost in industrial systems. Frances Davies of AFSA’s Seed Working Group added: “When governments privilege patent-protected seeds, they trade food sovereignty for corporate profits.”

The campaign coincides with rising farmer protests against seed laws in Kenya, Zambia, and Ghana, where legislation increasingly favors certified commercial varieties. AFSA’s mobilization aims to unite 50 million smallholders, consumers, and policymakers behind legal protections for seed-saving traditions the foundation, they argue, of climate resilience and food justice.

As African nations face pressure to adopt WTO-compliant seed policies, this movement reframes the debate: not just about crops, but who controls the right to nourish future generations. With 70% of Africa’s population dependent on smallholder farming, the outcome could determine the continent’s ability to feed itself in an era of climate crisis.