From September to November 2019, the r4d Food Systems Caravan toured as a 50 day road show and communication caravan through five countries in West Africa, bringing the main messages of food security research partnership projects to diverse institutions and the general public. It organised events for direct dialogue, linking actors in local and regional networks, promoting knowledge exchanges on food systems sustainability including agroecology, agroforestry, organic farming and gender equality. The research documentary “The Green Vein” and many other digital products emerged from this unique journey which is continuing... On the occasion of the event in Zurich on 28.10.2022 we will contextualise and focus on key insights. More information in French, English, German: Info.

THE GREEN VEIN – SYNOPSIS
For centuries, the great empires of West Africa were fed by rivers like the Volta or the Niger – their blue veins.
Today, after decades of colonisation, the food resilience of the banks of these rivers is at risk, and endogenous culture is being lost to an increasingly urban and violently industrialised transitional society.

Nigeria tells us how far this boat can sink through the voice of Dr Beatrice, but on the banks of the Niger, in Mali, that a first answer comes to us. “My first contact with farming was through the internet” Ousmane, a former footballer who swapped football pitches for other fields, tells us. Farmers poisoned by pesticides are a constant in Burkina Faso, triggering the search for alternatives are sought by partnerships between scientists and farmers. In the urban periphery children learn a taste for planting. In Ghana students and researchers seek to value endogenous culture and recover local food sovereignty. Members of the Rastafari community feel the call to care for the health of the land and people. “This is the moment of the African Renaissance” argues Godfrey Namudjo, founder of Songhai, a worldwide recognized agroecological training centre in Benin.
A stream of awareness, ideas and initiatives flows and grows across West Africa like a powerful green vein fertilising the land.