by Munetsi Madakufamba – SANF 05 no 15
MAURITIUS, 23 February – Southern Africa’s agriculture sector, which has suffered enormously from persistent natural disasters and an unfair trade environment over the past decade, is set to bounce back as governments take extra measures to implement a regionally agreed programme of action.
Senior officials of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Grand Baie, Mauritius, in preparation for the Council of Ministers on 24-25 February, agreed that member states are honouring commitments to the Dar es Salaam declaration on agriculture and food security.
The landmark declaration was endorsed by an extra ordinary summit of SADC leaders when they met in the Tanzanian capital on 15 May 2004. Through the declaration, the leaders agreed to take bold actions to revamp the agriculture sector and eliminate hunger in the region.
According to Margaret Nyirenda, Director of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) directorate at SADC Secretariat, the declaration has had an immediate impact because it:
- prioritised the agriculture development issues from SADC’s 15-year blueprint, the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP);
- put time-bound indicators in short- medium- to long-term plans of action;
- directed that adequate resources be allocated to agriculture at both national and regional levels; and
- directed that a monitoring system to track progress be put in place.
The SADC Secretariat has since developed the tracking system, which will soon produce its first report.
Describing the sector as being on a path to recovery, Nyirenda said that “estimates for the 2004 crop harvest indicate a cereal output of 25.09 million tonnes, which is 10 percent higher than the 22.75 million tonnes harvested in the previous season.”
She said the overall cereal deficit of 1.69 million tonnes is significantly lower than the one experienced in the previous year. The countries that are still experiencing food shortages are Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, with a combined estimate of five million people affected.
The current farming season has been a mixed one for SADC. During the first quarter — October-December 2004 — the rainy season started on time in the northern half of the region, resulting in normal planting.
However, a late onset of rains negatively affected the southern half of the region. FANR says the worst affected areas are in central and southern Namibia, eastern and southern Botswana, Zimbabwe, most parts of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique.
Meanwhile the SADC Drought Monitoring Centre is forecasting a normal to below normal rainfall for the region during the last quarter of the season – January to March.
As natural disasters such as droughts persistently haunt the region, it comes as no surprise that SADC member states are pinning their hopes on implementing the Dar es Salaam declaration.
Agriculture is a major sector in SADC, contributing 35 percent to the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), 13 percent of export earnings and supporting over 70 percent of the region’s population who depend on it for food, income and employment. (SARDC)
