The African Union (AU), has adopted a 10-year agricultural development strategy that will see the continent increase its agrifood output by 45% by 2035 and transform its agri-food systems.
- •The continent’s population is projected to hit 2.5 billion against the expected global growth of 9.8 billion people by 2050, creating food security concerns.
- •The 55 AU member states meeting in Kampala-Uganda over the weekend agreed to start implementing the new strategy and action plan from next year to 2035.
- •The new strategy and action plan will also see continent reduce post-harvest loss by 50%, triple intra-African trade in agrifood products and inputs by 2035, and raise the share of locally processed food to 35% of agrifood GDP by 2035.
On the sidelines of the Kampala declaration, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) regional trade bloc said its priority areas include developing competitive regional value chains and aligning of agricultural policies to the Comprehensive Africa Development Programme (CAADP) framework across Member States.
The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), is an Agenda 2063 continental initiative that aims to help African countries eliminate hunger and reduce poverty by raising economic growth through agriculture-led development.
Through CAADP, African governments agreed to allocate at least 10% of national budgets to agriculture and rural development, and to achieve agricultural growth rates of at least 6% per annum. Underlying these commitments are targets for reducing poverty and malnutrition, increasing productivity and farm incomes, and improving the sustainability of agricultural production and use of natural resources.
Other key areas COMESA highlighted included promoting climate-smart agriculture and enhancing market access for smallholder farmers.
On non-tariff barriers (NTBs), Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni called on fellow leaders to open up the borders since they continue to undermine the advancement of agriculture in Africa. “Uganda easily produces all types of agricultural products. However, production is disrupted when some brother countries say they have bumper crops and delicense Ugandan products”, he added.
