By Dela Ahiawor
The rains in The Gambia came late this year. Again. In Senegal, the millet harvest shrank. In northern Ghana, farmers watched topsoil wash away after a single downpour.
Across West Africa, climate change is no longer a forecast. It is a season. And in response, farmers, scientists, and policymakers are turning to an old idea made new: agroecology — the application of ecological principles to farming.
From July 1–3, 2026, that shift took center stage in Accra, Ghana. At the Agroecology Conference led by the EU-backed programme CIRAWA, the message was clear: to survive climate change, feed people, and rebuild broken soils, West Africa must farm with nature, not against it.
The Gathering In Accra: A Continent Looking Downward
The turnout was remarkable. Policymakers, researchers in African agriculture, and farmers traveled from Cape Verde, Senegal, The Gambia and Ghana to the CIRAWA conference in Accra.
Their goal was singular: scale nature-based solutions and traditional agricultural knowledge to enhance climate resilience across West Africa.
CIRAWA — the EU-backed program — is working with small-holder farmers in West Africa to improve food nutrition, local livelihoods, and ecosystem health. Bringing together 16 partners from 9 countries, CIRAWA is developing new agroecological-based practices that build on existing local and scientific knowledge to help create more resilient food supply chains in eight regions across Cape Verde, Ghana, Senegal, and The Gambia.
The conference also sets the stage for the presentation of cross-border agroecological research and collaboration conducted as part of the European Union-funded CIRAWA project. High-ranking representatives from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in Ghana, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), UNESCO, the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research (CORAF), and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) were present.
The conference seeks to define a roadmap on how agroecology can be improved and implemented across West Africa through trainings, policy and collaboration. It also marks a milestone in the progress made in the CIRAWA project towards greater agroecological understanding and implementation in West Africa and beyond.
Why Now: Fertilizer Costs, Dry Soils, Hungry Markets
The urgency is economic as much as environmental.
For years, smallholders have been caught between rising synthetic fertilizer costs and degraded land. Decades of industrial monoculture and synthetic fertilizer use have degraded topsoil across parts of the continent.
Agroecology offers a way out. By adopting practices like composting, farmers keep agricultural investment local and boost community wealth, bypassing expensive chemical inputs.
Importantly, it also helps to build climate resilience. Practices like intercropping, agroforestry, and rainwater harvesting improve soil moisture retention. That stabilizes crop yields, even during prolonged droughts or erratic rainfall.
Furthermore, agroecology validates and integrates ancestral, indigenous farming practices that have sustained communities for generations without harming the local ecosystem. To counter the effects of degraded land, agroecology regenerates soil health, improves biodiversity, and reverses land degradation.
And the market is shifting too. Consumers are increasingly looking for healthy, chemical-free, and culturally appropriate foods. Localized, territorial markets for organic and indigenous produce are expanding, offering better economic returns for farmers.
Policy Moves: From Ghana To The Region
The proven benefits of agroecology are driving regional bodies and countries like Mali, Uganda and Senegal to integrate agroecology into their national development strategies to boost food security.
Riding this regional wave, Ghana's Feed Ghana Programme* aims to adopt nature-based farming practices such as agroforestry and bio-fertilizers.
The initiative was announced by Ghana's Vice President, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, through a speech read on her behalf at the CIRAWA Agroecology Conference. Ghana aims to scale up the adoption of sustainable farming practices under the Feed Ghana Programme.
The targeted methods include crop diversification, agroforestry, farmer-led irrigation, simple mechanization, and the use of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides.
In Ghana, advocates are pushing for a dedicated National Agroecology Strategy to shape long-term policies that align food production with nature. Recognizing that conventional farming has degraded African ecosystems, leaders urge researchers and policymakers to collaborate on climate-resilient, sustainable food systems across the continent.
Sustainable farming exhibitions and agro-technology events translate these broad environmental policies into practical, on-the-ground applications. By demonstrating innovative solutions, like crop diversification and bio-fertilizer usage, these expos directly support national initiatives like the Feed Ghana Programme, which aims to boost local agricultural productivity and ensure long-term food security.
The Voices: Science Meets Tradition
Taking the stage at the conference, Professor Saa Dittoh, a renowned Agricultural Development Economist at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Ghana, highlighted agroecology as a powerful tool for achieving African food sovereignty and climate resilience. "Agroecology is not just a farming method but an act of resistance, allowing African nations to reclaim food sovereignty instead of relying on fragile, exploitative global supply chains."
He questioned the heavy emphasis on genetically modified crops, stressing that viable, natural, and indigenous alternatives exist that are better suited to local needs.
He urged the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to redirect subsidies away from synthetic inputs and toward organic alternatives, natural pest control, composting, and crop diversification.
Furthermore, Prof. Dittoh urged the government to embed agroecological practices into national agricultural programs such as the Feed Ghana initiative and called for a National Agroecology Strategy (NAS).
Looking at the broader subcontinental picture, he noted that while West Africa is making progress, the region must actively lobby and rely on robust scientific and local movements to accelerate its agroecological transformation — a transformation that is fundamentally anchored in reviving Africa’s degraded farmlands.
Professor Oluwole A. Fatunbi, FARA's Acting Director of Research and Innovation, also highlighted the critical necessity of reviving Africa’s degraded farmlands.
He argued that a key nature-based solution for sustainable food systems lies in recycling agricultural waste into high-value organic resources.
Consequently, he pledged FARA's dedication to merging cutting-edge scientific research with traditional, indigenous farming knowledge to rapidly scale up agroecology across West Africa.
The Road Ahead
What happened in Accra was more than a conference. It was a declaration that West Africa’s food future will not be imported in bags of fertilizer.
With CIRAWA’s 16 partners across 9 countries, with Feed Ghana rolling out, and with farmers in 8 regions testing new methods, the experiment is already underway.
The challenge now is policy, training, and money. If governments follow through on strategies like NAS, and if research institutions keep blending science with indigenous knowledge, agroecology could become West Africa’s primary defense against climate shocks.
As the rains grow more erratic and fertilizer grows more expensive, the continent may find that the answers were in the soil all along.
