Circularity in Africa: Food Systems Workshops

WCEF2022 and ACEN Event | Circularity in Africa: bUilt Environment Workshop

Circularity in Africa: Food Systems

ACEN’s fifth and final session in the five-part workshop series titled Circularity in Africa: Food Systems on 17 November 2022. Food systems are a major contributor to GDP in Africa and a crucial infrastructure for feeding its people. This session focused on regenerative agriculture, innovative ways to support the transition to circular food systems and the barriers experienced by entrepreneurs in the food systems industry, including access to finance and policies which do not support entrepreneurs with the adaption of a circular economy.


Workshop Summary

Food systems are a major contributor to GDP in Africa and a crucial infrastructure for feeding its people. This session focused on regenerative agriculture, innovative ways to support the transition to circular food systems, and the barriers experienced by entrepreneurs in the food systems industry, including access to finance and policies which do not support entrepreneurs with the adoption of a circular economy. 


Our final and anticipated WCEF2022 Food Systems workshop was attended by participants from various public and private institutions, including  the World Resources Institute, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) business council and various African universities. 


The workshop started with two case studies, firstly,  Fresh Life Produce from South Africa showcased how they use the African Grower to support informal settlements to become producers to disrupt the fresh food production market. Secondly, AgriLife Ltd from Tanzania presented how they use waste-to-nutrient insect technology using black soldier fly larvae to up-cycle organic waste into organic fertilizer for crops and sustainable protein ingredients for the poultry and aqua-feeds industry. 


“Solutions around circularity is a new concept and policy makers are still struggling to understand the information around it” - Rose Nduta (Bopinc)


Two recurring themes mentioned by the panellists were finance and policies which cause the greatest barriers to scaling circular agriculture businesses. Firstly, small-scale farmers cannot access finance due to the inability to prove the business case for a circular business and financial institutions lacking circular economy knowledge and awareness. Also, financial institutions focus on large, established agricultural businesses without micro financing facilities for entrepreneurs. During the policy discussion, the lack of general circular economy knowledge, especially in the agriculture sector was reiterated. 


Africa has been using circular principles, such as regenerative agriculture and bartering. With policy support, access to finance and proving that circular systems in the agriculture sector can work, there is an opportunity to upscale these traditional African concepts and transition to a circular agriculture sector. Encouragingly, various panellists and participants are currently contributing to the circular agriculture transition by using technology to connect farmers, defining circular indicators and metrics to support financial and policy decisions and equipping farmers with circular economy know-how. 


Resources and Case Studies


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