Abdul Karim Touré

A Malian entrepreneur who created the first pan-African cooperative farming network in the 1960s, boosting food security across West Africa.

Abdul Karim Touré (1932-2001) was a Malian agricultural innovator whose cooperative networks transformed rural economies. Originating from Segou, he founded the Sahel Agricultural Collective in 1965, linking 150 villages across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. His Rotating Seed Bank system allowed farmers to share drought-resistant crops, tripling yields in famine-prone regions. Touré's advocacy led to the 1970 Lomé Agreement establishing cross-border crop insurance. His memoir Seeds of Solidarity (1975) inspired similar cooperatives in 12 African nations. Today, his legacy lives through the West Africa Agro Network, which he helped found in 1972. Despite minimal international recognition, his methods remain central to modern agroecology practices.