A review of the landscape of agroecology policies towards transforming food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

Figures & data

Figure 1. Variety in the contemporary interpretations and connotations of agroecology.

Table 1. Challenges of adopting agroecology in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Country	Challenges	References
Uganda	Mainly involves the political economy of agricultural development. For example, there is a push to increase the use of inorganic fertilizers. Similarly, private economic incentives, political interests, corruption, and modernization ideology seem to blend into each other to block agroecological pathways in Uganda. There are tendencies to invalidate ideas motivated by environmental or social concerns and to devalue knowledge outside formal scientific research, even among farmers. Lack of knowledge about existing policy frameworks, partly due to literacy and language barriers, means that CSOs engaged in policy advocacy must find other ways to assess what is in smallholder farmers’ interests than simply asking them what changes they wish to see.	Isgren (2018); Isgren and Ness, (2017)
Kenya	Agroecological farmers in Kenya experience challenges because no strategies or legislation recognize their production nature. Kenya does not have legislation that protects local varieties nor promotes their breeding, increasing their vulnerability, especially after catastrophes like drought.	Karuga (2022)
Ethiopia	The adoption of sustainable soil conservation practices was constrained because of restricted access to land.	Mekoya et al. (2008)
Rwanda	The decline in farmers’ adoption of agroecological practice in the southern province of Rwanda was caused by a lack of skills support and subsidies for such training.	Kiyani et al. (2017)
Senegal	Agroecological transition remains strongly dependent on international aid, which favours the empowerment of donors, NGOs, and research organizations to the detriment of more bottom-up organizations such as farmer unions.	Boillat et al. (2022)
Burkina Faso and Benin	There is lack of institutional support.	Tapsoba et al. (2020)
South Africa	Institutional barriers, such as limited access to extension services, technical support, and market opportunities for agroecological products, also contribute to the low adoption of agroecology strategies among farmers in South Africa.	Zenda and Rudolph, (2024)

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Karuga, J. G. (2022). Agroecological farming impacts livelihoods improvement to inform county government on the enactment of agroecology policy: a case study of Kiambu County, Central Kenya [Master’s thesis]. Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

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Kiyani, P., Andoh, J., Lee, Y., & Lee, D. K. (2017). Benefits and challenges of agroforestry adoption: a case of Musebeya sector, Nyamagabe District in southern province of Rwanda. Forest Science and Technology, 13(4), 174–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/21580103.2017.1392367

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Boillat, S., Belmin, R., & Bottazzi, P. (2022). The agroecological transition in Senegal: transnational links and uneven empowerment. Agriculture and Human Values, 39(1), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-021-10247-5

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Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.