Faith leaders call for Faithful Farming to be practiced across Africa

	Delegates visit an organic farm as part of the workshop

African faith leaders have called on faith communities to practice faith-based sustainable agriculture in order to grow more food, reduce poverty and protect the environment. They also called for an Alliance of Faithful Food and Farming to be established to spearhead faith action in this area.

In a three-page declaration issued to mark World Food Day 2014 at the end of a three-day workshop in Mukono, Uganda, the faith leaders said scaling up faith-based approaches to agriculture was 'one of the most important steps we can take to fulfill our religious duty to care for God’s creation' while also caring for the poor and vulnerable.

Faith-based sustainable agriculture - such as Christian Farming or Farming God's Way and Islamic Farming, both of which integrate faith scriptures about caring for the Earth with practical training in conservation agriculture - not only benefitted the environment but also improved the lives of our people, they said.

	A student at Kisowera Secondary School tells delegates about its new Farming God's Way garden

The Mukono Declaration on the Role of Faith Communities in Promoting Faithful Farming also called upon governments and international organisations such as the United Nations to support faith communities in practising faith-based, climate-smart, sustainable agriculture.

The faith leaders, who were from eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa, said an Alliance of Faithful Food and Farming was needed to spearhead faith efforts in this area.

And after a lively discussion, the meeting of around 90 faith leaders, education specialists and environmentalists, voted overwhelmingly with just three abstentions to state their opposition to the use of genetically modified (biotech) seeds in agriculture 'on the grounds of integrity of creation, environmental concerns and social justice'.

International workshop on sustainable land management