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To ensure the long-term food security of people in the Kenyan district of Murang’a, agroecology has been enshrined in law. Biovision supported both the local authorities and the population in the process.

Biovision promotes agroecology to leverage a sustainable food system. Entrepreneurs, project leaders and people responsible for initiatives often do not know how much their projects or business model correspond to the 13 principles of agroecology, though. To make their assessments easier (and anchor agroecology more firmly as a result), Biovision has developed the Business Agroecology Criteria Tool, or B-ACT for short.

Today we celebrate 25 years of Biovision. Our journey has led us to countless encounters, brought numerous challenges, but also great successes. Join us on a journey through time, from our past to our future.

In 2023, Biovision is celebrating its 25th birthday. Our years of dedicated work have had a lasting impact and left their mark. To mark the occasion, we invite you to accompany us through a compilation of photos and videos that we pulled from our archives.

Biodiversity loss, climate change, rising fertiliser prices: these global challenges are highly influenced by food production and consumption. Agroecology addresses these challenges, shares many synergies with other systemic approaches and may even decrease governments’ dependencies on global markets. This is shown by the three policy briefs from the Agroecology Dialogues, published by Biovision and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in support of the Agroecology Coalition.

In southern Kenya, a new approach to reducing malaria and other tropical diseases is being tested with active involvement of villagers. The initial findings are promising.

The influence of agriculture and the food system on the climate has been neglected in climate negotiations thus far. In recent years, Biovision has been advocating for an agroecological transformation to address climate change. It was also present this year at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. We spoke to Tanja Carrillo from our Policy & Advocacy team about whether this conference has brought us a step closer to climate protection.

Together towards a sustainable food system – How do we get there? At the 2022 Biovision Symposium we learned about solutions and challenges for a food system of the future. Here you find impressions from the event and info about “food movements” that strengthen local communities and promote a shift towards organic agriculture.

Creating a more sustainable food system is an urgent task for all of society. A citizens’ council, composed to represent the views of the Swiss public, shows how it can be achieved.

For 20 years, Esther Lupafya and Rachel Bezner Kerr have been working together for healthy nutrition in Malawi. In this interview, the founders of Biovision’s partner organisation “Soils, Food and Healthy Communities” (SFHC) talk about gender norms and the power of knowledge exchange and participatory research.

Higher food prices, halted grain deliveries, extreme droughts: the food situation has dramatically worsened for millions of people worldwide this year. It is particularly precarious in sub-Saharan Africa, where our organization runs around 50 projects. How is Biovision working to counteract the crisis?

In southwestern Ethiopia, rural households are struggling with soil degradation and crop failures. Working together, they are taking measures to limit soil erosion and also to diversify their sources of income, in order to protect themselves from crises.

Former Biovision Programme Officer Shruti Patel was elected to the Foundation Board at the end of June. In her new role, she will continue to support Biovision’s work and put first-class scientific research into practice.

Soil is the fundament for life on Earth, provides food and feed for all creatures above and below ground and plays a major role in climate protection! Soils bind atmospheric CO2, absorb rain water while prevent flooding, store water in long dry seasons, and buffer the extreme adverse impacts of the fast changing climate.

Scouts learn how to protect the environment and take care of nature. CLEVER is now showing them at the “mova” national Scout camp how they can also behave in an environmentally conscious way in their everyday lives with sustainable consumption.

Reducing organic production to fight the food crisis would be disastrous. Much more urgent for overcoming the crisis is the transformation to a sustainable food system.

Ten years ago, the fields of Patrick Maive and Joyce Wangari hardly yielded anything. That all changed when they set out to make their soil fertile again, with the help of Kenyan researchers.

The research of Marcus Maeder, main initiator of the Biovision project Sounding Soil, shows scientifically for the first time: the biodiversity and intensity of underground life can be measured acoustically.

Too complex, too time consuming, not implementable on a large scale – these are common prejudices against agroecology. Nevertheless, research results are increasingly showing that agroecology provides a convincing path to a sustainable food system. But one crux is how to fund it. How Biovision is now getting things moving.

Beryl Atieno Munika has lived with a physical handicap since birth. As a young woman she was dependent on her parents. Then she attended a course in organic farming and took fate into her own hands.