An alternative to third-party certification, participatory guarantee systems (PGS) are, in Africa, the only means of labeling sustainable agriculture oriented for local and regional markets. Indeed, the prohibitive cost and the documentation required to access European market for organic agriculture exclude, de facto, the majority of producers on the continent.
After the creation of the first African PGS in 2005 in South Africa, the 2010s show an acceleration of the PGS movement. So much so that today, 50 are operational or in developement, bringing together nearly 10,000 farmers on 34,000 hectares of land.
An informal network already brought together members from West and Central Africa, via whatsapp group. But due to lack of resources, its members were never able to meet together. The PRETAG (Pesticide Reduction for Tropical Agricultures) project, coordinated by CIRAD, with the financial support of the Agropolis Fondation and the MARIGO project (financed by EU), made it possible to organize this first regional meeting of West and central African PGSs in February 2023 in Yamoussoukro hosted by the INPHB Higher School of Agronomy.
