In a thought-provoking session of the Friday Political Classes on February 28, 2025, at the opposition ACT Wazalendo party’s HQ in Magomeni, Dar es Salaam, the screening of The Last Seed provided a powerful insight into the critical issues of food and seed sovereignty, agroecology and the growing dominance of multinational corporations in Africa’s agricultural landscape.
The documentary, rich with narratives from small-scale farmers, activists, and policy experts, sparked an engaging discussion on the challenges facing African agriculture and the urgent need for a paradigm shift toward sustainable farming practices.
The Last Seed, produced by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in collaboration with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), is a poignant documentary that takes viewers on a cinematic journey through Africa’s contemporary food and agriculture challenges. The film opens with a breathtaking dawn—golden light reflecting off a tranquil lake as a lone canoe glides across the water.
Lush green leaves sway gently in the breeze, surrounding villages where farmers tend their fields with age-old wisdom. Towering mountains stand as silent witnesses to a time when land, people, and crops thrived in harmony, free from external control. This balance was disrupted by agribusiness and corporate intervention, bringing promises of progress that masked deeper crises.
At the heart of the documentary lies the pressing issue of seed sovereignty—the right of farmers to save, use, exchange, and breed seeds without corporate or government restrictions.
Historically, African farmers have relied on indigenous seed varieties, ensuring agricultural biodiversity and resilience in the face of climate change. However, this centuries-old practice is under threat due to the aggressive expansion of multinational corporations like Monsanto, now part of Bayer, Syngenta, owned by ChemChina, and other agrochemical giants.
In the discussion of the influence of multinational corporations on Africa’s agricultural landscape, particularly concerning seed sovereignty, one prominent entity discussed is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), established in 2006 with substantial funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
READ MORE: It’s Either Seed Sovereignty or Modern-Day Slavery
AGRA aimed to halve hunger in 20 African nations and double the income and yields of over 30 million small-scale farmers by 2020. However, instead of delivering on its promises, it appears that hunger has actually escalated by 30 per cent in these countries. It has failed to increase yields significantly while deepening farmer dependency on costly inputs.
The film critiques AGRA’s approach, which emphasizes the use of commercial seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides. This model often overlooks traditional farming practices and the rich agricultural biodiversity inherent to African communities.
By promoting a narrow concept of productivity focused on yield enhancement for a limited number of grain types, AGRA’s initiatives have marginalised centuries-old farming practices and resilience strategies that African farmers have depended on.
Again, the film illustrates how these corporations, through intellectual property laws and trade agreements, have monopolized the seed market, replacing diverse, locally adapted crops with uniform, patented seeds that require expensive chemical inputs. This shift not only erodes biodiversity but also makes small-scale farmers dependent on costly and unsustainable agribusiness models.
Participants questioned major agribusiness initiatives in Tanzania such as Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First, in Kiswahili) and the recently launched Building a Better Tomorrow Youth Initiative (BBT-YI), which have been promoted as solutions to agricultural productivity and youth unemployment challenges respectively. However, these initiatives often align with corporate interests rather than those of smallholder farmers.
A clash of visions
One of the most compelling themes of The Last Seed is the contrast between agroecology and industrial agribusiness. Agroecology, which integrates ecological principles with traditional farming knowledge, offers a sustainable path forward.
The film showcases examples of African farmers successfully implementing agroecological methods—using organic fertilizers, intercropping, and seed-saving techniques—to restore soil health and increase productivity without reliance on synthetic inputs.
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On the other hand, agribusiness, driven by profit motives rather than food security, promotes a system that prioritises monocultures, heavy pesticide use, and corporate control over seeds.
While this model is often presented as a solution to food shortages, The Last Seed challenges this narrative, showing that hunger in Africa is not due to a lack of production but rather systemic inequalities in food distribution, market access, and land control.
The documentary portrays the resilience of African communities in defending their seed sovereignty. For instance, it showcases the journey of Kenyan farmer Francis Ngiri, who, after facing losses due to industrial farming practices, returned to indigenous seed saving. His community established a seed bank, preserving over a hundred seed varieties, ensuring seed availability even after extreme weather events.
Furthermore, civil society organisations (CSOs) emerge as key players in resisting corporate control over agriculture. Organisations such as the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), Network of Small Scale-Farmers’ Groups in Tanzania (MVIWATA), La Via Campasina and the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) have been at the forefront of advocating for farmer-managed seed systems and pushing back against restrictive seed laws.
The film highlights how these CSOs, through grassroots mobilisation and policy advocacy, have challenged attempts by multinational corporations to introduce restrictive seed regulations.
In countries like Tanzania, Kenya, and Ghana, local movements have successfully resisted laws that criminalise the saving and exchange of indigenous seeds. Such victories demonstrate the power of organized resistance and the importance of policy interventions that protect smallholder farmers’ rights.
What is more than seeds?
The dominance of multinational corporations in Africa’s seed market has far-reaching consequences beyond just farming. The Last Seed draws connections between corporate control of agriculture and broader issues such as food sovereignty, climate resilience, and economic justice.
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Food Sovereignty: the ability of communities to control their own food systems, is fundamental to achieving true independence. When farmers lose control over seeds, they also lose the ability to determine what they grow, how they grow it, and how they feed their communities.
Climate Resilience: Indigenous seed varieties have evolved over generations to adapt to local environmental conditions, making them naturally resilient to climate extremes. In contrast, genetically modified and hybrid seeds promoted by agribusiness often require high inputs of water, fertilizers, and pesticides—resources that are increasingly scarce in many African regions.
Economic Justice: The dependence on corporate seeds and agrochemicals traps farmers in cycles of debt, exacerbating economic inequalities and widening the gap between rural producers and urban consumers. By contrast, agroecology provides a model where farmers retain autonomy, reduce costs, and contribute to a more equitable agricultural system.
Struggle for democracy
Beyond the urgent agricultural and economic concerns, The Last Seed also exposed participants to a deeper and truer version of democracy—one rooted in the struggles of peasants fighting for their right to make decisions, to choose their farming methods, and to assert sovereignty over their livelihoods.
The documentary underscored that democracy is not just about political institutions but also about the autonomy of communities to determine their own food systems, resist corporate dominance, and uphold their traditions against imposed models of development. The battle for seed sovereignty, therefore, is inseparable from the broader fight for democratic rights and social justice.
Following the screening, discussions among members of the political class developed anxiety to challenge corporate Influence by joining other forces to resist corporate-driven agricultural policies and advocate for alternatives that put people before profits.
It was almost agreed that the Government of Tanzania has gradually been enforcing corporate-friendly regulations, programmes and narration than farmer-managed seed systems that recognize and promote indigenous seeds.
READ MORE: Farm to Market Alliance: Cultivating Success for Tanzania’s Smallholder Farmers
The Last Seed serves as both a warning and an inspiration. It exposes the threats posed by multinational agribusinesses to Africa’s food systems while highlighting the resilience of farmers and civil society groups fighting for a just and sustainable future.
The Screening of this documentary in our political classes reaffirmed the importance of critical political education in shaping a generation of leaders who can challenge injustices and build a more food-secure Africa.
As the battle for food sovereignty continues, the film’s message is clear, the future of African agriculture must be in the hands of those who nurture the land, not those who seek to exploit it for profit. The struggle for seed sovereignty is ultimately a struggle for justice, sustainability and the right to define our own future, the struggle for democracy.
Idrisa Kweweta is a participant of the Friday Political Class that the opposition ACT-Wazalendo party organises weekly at its headquarters. He is available at drisakweweta@yahoo.com. The opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chanzo. If you are interested in publishing in this space, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.
One Response
Bravo ACT Wazalendo for screening this firm. Bravo also for holding weekly political classes. In the sixties TANU used to have ideological classes for its cadres to discuss issues such as this. Then the party (CCM) was taken over by the comprador bourgeoisie and the ideology was trashed. So sad.