Reflection on the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA’s), AfriTAP and ETC Group Pan-African Convening on the Future of Biodigital Technologies in Food and Agriculture
By Karen Nekesa Samukoya
Communication Officer
In October 2nd to 4th 2025, I had the privilege of representing the Seed and Knowledge Initiative (SKI) at the first Pan-African Convening on the Future of Biodigital Technologies in Food and Agriculture, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The gathering brought together over 130 participants from across Africa including farmers, youth, Indigenous peoples, scientists, policy makers, and civil society organizations in a powerful space of solidarity and shared purpose. Together, we explored how emerging digital and biotechnologies are reshaping African food systems and what it means to defend food sovereignty in this new digital era.
From the opening session, the message was clear: Africa stands at a crossroads. In his address, H.E. Seyoum Mekonen, State Minister of Planning and Development, reminded us that digital transformation is not only a technical process but also a political and moral question; one about power, justice, and the legacy we intend to leave for our children. His words set the tone for deep reflection during the convening on how technologies like artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, data platforms, and robotics are being integrated into agriculture and often driven by corporate interests that risk undermining smallholder farmers and Indigenous knowledge.
Throughout the convening, conversations centered on the convergence of biology and technology, a phenomenon that is rapidly changing how food is produced, distributed, and governed. We examined the implications of AI, surveillance, data capture, and digital credit systems questioning who benefits, who controls, and who is left behind. Breakout sessions delved into themes of agroecology and Indigenous knowledge in a digital era, seeds and biodigitalisation, justice in the digital food economy, and land and digital extractivism. As Communication Officer, I had the opportunity to co-facilitate the discussions on the way forward and next steps together with the SKI Advocacy Officer, helping guide participants in co-creating collective strategies and reflection questions that shaped the final Pan-African Declaration on Biodigital Technologies.
What inspired me most was the spirit of unity and resistance that filled the room, a shared recognition that technology is not neutral. It can either serve people and the planet or deepen existing inequalities. The Declaration that emerged from the convening is both a warning and a vision: it rejects the corporate capture of Africa’s genetic resources and data, and calls for a future rooted in people-centered, non-extractive, and ecologically grounded technologies. It reminds us that data justice, seed sovereignty, and community control must anchor Africa’s digital transformation.
For SKI, this convening reaffirmed our values putting people over technology, upholding sovereignty and ecological integrity, and fostering solidarity across movements. It also highlighted new opportunities: to strengthen digital literacy among farmers, promote community-led data governance, and collaborate with partners like AFSA, AfriTAP, ETC Group and other allies to ensure Africa’s digital future is inclusive, ethical, and just.
Leaving Addis Ababa, I carried with me a renewed conviction that Africa’s strength lies not in adopting every new technology, but in shaping them according to our values, cultures, and ecological realities. The conversations reminded me that the fight for food sovereignty now extends beyond our fields and seed banks, it also reaches into the digital spaces where knowledge, data, and power are contested. As SKI, we remain committed to amplifying farmers voices, defending indigenous knowledge, and ensuring that innovation always serves life and not profit.
