NAIROBI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The first International Conference on Organic Farming concluded on Thursday with delegates endorsing a raft of measures to ensure food production systems in Africa are ecologically sound.
More than 500 delegates including policymakers, scientists, farmers and green campaigners attended the three-day forum in Nairobi to explore new strategies to boost adoption of organic farming in Africa.
The conference in its final communique resolved to lobby African governments to enact policies that promote organic farming as a means to achieve food security and transform rural livelihoods.
"We call upon African governments to align national policies to the ecological organic agriculture agenda whose implementation is key to achieve sustainable development goals and the Africa Union Agenda 2063," the delegates resolved.
Kenya hosted the first ever international conference whose objective was to revitalize organic farming agenda in Africa in the light of challenges linked to climatic shocks, population pressure and shrinking arable land.
David Amudavi, executive director of Nairobi-based Biovision Africa Trust, said that African countries are well-placed to scale up adoption of farming practices that are environmentally friendly subject to enactment of robust policies, training of small-holders and improved market linkages.
"The time is ripe to demystify the myth that organic agriculture cannot feed the world. It can work here in Africa if we train small-scale farmers how to harness organic inputs to grow food crops," said Amudavi.
Delegates attending the international organic farming conference in Nairobi resolved to raise awareness on the negative impact of intensive application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to produce food.
They also pledged to rally governments, industry and small-holder farmers towards establishment of a platform to foster sharing of knowledge and innovations required to boost uptake of organic farming.
Hans Rudolf Herren, president of Washington-based Millennium Institute, said that organic farming if adopted on a larger scale will help maintain a healthy balance between food security and environmental sustainability in Africa.
