Nnimmo Bassey is one of Africa’s most respected environmental defenders and a leading voice for ecological justice and food sovereignty. An architect, poet, and lifelong activist, he co-founded Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria, led Friends of the Earth International, and now directs the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF). His fearless resistance to oil multinationals and his defense of local communities have earned him international acclaim, including the 2010 Right Livelihood Award. Bassey has spent decades confronting the extractive industries and corporate systems that threaten Africa’s people, ecosystems, and food systems. In this episode of The Battle for African Agriculture, Bassey joins Million Belay for an in-depth conversation on neocolonialism, seed sovereignty, and the growing resistance to corporate capture of African food systems. Together, they unpack the colonial legacy behind industrial agriculture, expose how global corporations continue to shape African agricultural policy, and explore the radical potential of agroecology as both an ecological and political response.

In this second part of Battle for African Agriculture with Professor William G. Moseley, Dr. Million Belay continues a powerful exchange that began in their first conversation. Building on the themes introduced in Part One, Moseley dives deeper into the colonial legacies shaping African food systems and the urgent need to reclaim indigenous agronomy and agroecology. Together, they push the discussion further—examining how political choices, power structures, and global market forces continue to undermine smallholder farmers while highlighting pathways toward food sovereignty rooted in African contexts. This follow-up episode sharpens both the critique and the call to action, offering listeners not only analysis but also hope for a future where African agriculture flourishes on its own terms.

In this thought-provoking episode of Battle for African Agriculture, Dr. Million Belay sits down with Professor William G. Moseley—geographer, author, and outspoken critic of colonial agricultural models—to unpack the urgent need to decolonize African food systems. Drawing from his landmark book Decolonizing African Agriculture, Moseley explains how the failures of food security efforts across Africa are rooted in Western agronomic paradigms imposed through colonial and neocolonial institutions. Through decades of fieldwork in Mali, Burkina Faso, South Africa, and Botswana, he reveals how political power—not just scientific logic—has shaped agricultural policy, often to the detriment of smallholder farmers.

Together, they explore the promise of indigenous agronomy and agroecology as not only scientific alternatives but political and cultural acts of resistance. Moseley calls for a bold shift away from top-down, export-driven agricultural development toward locally rooted systems that nourish rural livelihoods, promote ecological health, and support food sovereignty. This episode is both a critique and a call to action—inviting listeners to imagine a radically different future where African food systems thrive on their own terms.

In this enlightening episode of Battle for African Agriculture, Dr. Million Belay is joined by Peter Gubbels, a veteran champion of agroecology and food sovereignty in West Africa. Drawing on decades of work across the Sahel with Groundswell International, Peter unpacks how colonial histories continue to shape the region’s agricultural policies, land use, and governance. From distorted food systems to degraded ecologies, he traces the deep scars left by colonialism—and shows how post-colonial aid and development models often reproduce these injustices under new names.

But Peter’s message is far from despairing. He shares powerful examples of grassroots communities reclaiming agency through agroecology, restoring degraded lands, reviving traditional knowledge, and asserting political voice. The episode explores how farmer-led organizing and bottom-up governance can break cycles of dependency, challenge extractive development, and usher in a truly African vision for food sovereignty. Grounded in experience and rich with insight, this conversation offers vital lessons for the entire continent and anyone committed to transforming food systems from the ground up.

In this deeply illuminating episode of Battle for African Agriculture, Dr. Million Belay speaks with Mamadou Goita—renowned economist and activist from Mali—about the enduring colonial roots of Africa’s food and farming crises. Together, they explore how colonial policies violently displaced communities from fertile lands, dismantled indigenous farming systems, and entrenched monoculture cash crops for export, laying the foundation for today’s food insecurity. Goita draws powerful connections between historical land grabs, the erosion of communal ownership, and Africa’s continued dependence on imported staple foods—a dependency reinforced by post-colonial trade policies and structural adjustment programs.

With clarity and urgency, Mamadou calls for a radical shift in agricultural thinking—one that centers indigenous knowledge, food sovereignty, and agroecology as tools of liberation. He critiques the ongoing influence of Western-led models and institutions, from donor-driven reforms to chemical-intensive farming and lifts up grassroots resistance across Africa. This episode is a compelling call to decolonize food systems, not just in practice, but in policy, governance, and imagination.

In this episode of The Battle for African Agriculture, Million Belay is joined by Professor Mohamed Coulibaly to unpack the political and legal complexities of seed sovereignty in Africa. With a background in banking and environmental law, Professor Coulibaly brings a deep understanding of how global frameworks particularly UPOV 1991—undermine traditional seed systems by prioritizing breeders’ rights over farmers’ rights. He explains how many African countries have adopted seed laws modelled after those in the Global North, which limit farmers’ ability to save, exchange, or improve their seeds—practices that are central to African agriculture and food sovereignty. The conversation also delves into the implementation challenges of the OAPI system and the African Model Law, revealing a stark disconnect between legal frameworks and the lived realities of African farmers. Professor Coulibaly argues that promises of innovation, investment, and agricultural development under these seed protection systems have largely failed to materialize. Instead, he calls for a bold shift toward an African-driven model that recognizes indigenous knowledge, strengthens farmer-researcher collaboration, and supports local seed systems. This powerful dialogue is a call to rethink how African countries govern seeds in ways that prioritize food security, biodiversity, and farmer resilience over corporate control.

In this episode of The Battle for African Agriculture, Million Belay speaks with seed law expert François Meinberg to unpack the complex issues surrounding Plant Variety Protection (PVP) laws and their impact on African farmers. The conversation explores how international frameworks like UPOV 1991 and the TRIPS Agreement often prioritize corporate interests, undermining farmers' rights to save, exchange, and develop seeds. Meinberg explains how these legal systems threaten biodiversity, restrict innovation, and erode indigenous knowledge systems that have long supported resilient food production in Africa. The episode also highlights the pressure African countries face to adopt restrictive seed laws, often at the expense of local food security and sovereignty. Meinberg emphasizes the importance of civil society advocacy, farmer-managed seed systems, and integrating traditional knowledge into legal frameworks. Together, they call for evidence-based policymaking and a balanced legal approach that supports both breeders and farmers, urging African leaders to resist trade agreements that compromise the continent’s agricultural future.

In this powerful episode of Battle for African Agriculture, Dr. Million Belay speaks with Dr. Carlos M. Correa—renowned legal scholar and Executive Director of the South Centre—about one of the most high-stakes battlegrounds in African agriculture: seed laws. Dr. Correa exposes how international agreements like UPOV 1991 were crafted without farmers and now threaten seed sovereignty across the Global South. He unpacks how trade deals and donor-driven pressures are pushing African countries to adopt legal regimes that prioritize corporate breeders over the rights of smallholder farmers, risking the erosion of biodiversity, local seed systems, and community resilience. Through sharp analysis and decades of experience, Dr. Correa highlights legal alternatives such as sui generis models and global frameworks like ITPGRFA and UNDROP that defend farmers’ rights and promote biodiversity. Together, he and Million explore how African countries can resist legal harmonization that serves foreign interests and instead champion laws grounded in local realities and food justice. This episode is a wake-up call for policymakers and a guiding light for movements working to protect seed freedom and decolonize agricultural governance.