Climate change adaptation through agroecology in Senegal

Abstract

In Sub-Saharan Africa, national and international organisations have recently multiplied efforts to support agroecology. As in the rest of the world, they present agroecology as an approach offering high potential to help farmers adapt to climate change while improving their labour conditions and autonomy. Four agroecological initiatives are scrutinised in northern Senegal from the perspective of their modes of production. While each of those initiatives considers farmworkers’ labour conditions a priority, vertical channels of labour control persist, maintaining farmworkers in a position of “technical demonstrators” rather than becoming agent of transformation. Recent attempts to upscale agroecology, assembling farmers’ organisations, advocacy NGOs and a network of mayors might offer new perspectives for agency.