AU summit eyes new strategy for Africa’s agrifood systems

Transforming Africa’s agrifood systems forms is high on the agenda at the ongoing Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) African Union (AU) summit.

Held under the theme, “sustainable and resilient agrifood systems for a healthy and prosperous Africa,” the three-day summit kicked off yesterday at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala, and will end tomorrow.

More than 2,000 participants from at least 49 African Union (AU) member States are in attendance.

The summit’s outcomes will see the adoption of the draft CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026 to 2035) as well as the absorption of the draft of the Kampala CAADP Declaration, all aimed at improving food systems in Africa.

The African Union (AU) Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, Josefa Sacko, said the summit would make key decisions that would shape Africa’s agrifood systems in the coming decade.

“This summit and the Kampala Declaration that will emanate from it represents a critical turning point in our collective efforts to transform Africa’s agrifood systems. It is a testament to our shared commitment to food sovereignty and prosperous and food-secure Africa,” Ambassador Sacko said.

She added: “As we move forward, I am filled with optimism that, through our collaborative efforts, we will realise the ambitious goals that have been set for the next decade.’’

The 10-year CAAP strategy and action plans aim to boost food production, expand value addition, boost intra-Africa trade, create millions of jobs for youth and women, build inclusive agrifood value chains, and build resilient and sustainable agrifood systems that will withstand shocks and stressors now and in the future.

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, in her remarks, urged respective Africa’s agriculture sector ministers to deliberately work on reducing Africa’s over-reliance on food imports from outside the continent.

“We must position the continent in such a manner that our agricultural sector is resilient to climate change as well as other shocks and is adaptive to advances in technology,” Ms Nabbanja said.

The prime minister made the remarks while referencing an African Development Bank report which states that Africa has 65 percent of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land. It further reveals that more than 60 percent of Africa’s working population is engaged in agriculture and that the continent’s soil is fertile and rich.

The report, additionally indicates that Africa has abundant fresh water, with enough rainfall and a good number of days of sunshine, each year. 

“What a shame? that a continent that was gifted by God with such a proportion of the world’s arable land is experiencing such a trend in food imports!” Ms Nabbanja said, adding: “This session of the summit should come up with concrete proposals on how Africa can come out of such an undesirable situation.”

To guarantee a future in the continent, Africans must feed themselves, Ms Nabbanja elaborated further on the subject.

Uganda task

Agriculture minister Frank Tumwebaze said his team was set to have the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026 to 2035) and the Kampala CAADP Declaration considered and adopted by the assembly. 

This was against the background that Mr Tumwebaze was asked to lead the process of drafting the successor strategy and agenda after the second CAADP Strategy and Action Plan or the Malabo Declaration coming to a close in 2023, a period in which the minister was elected as the chairperson of the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment.

“I want to thank you very much for entrusting me with that noble responsibility and report to you that we are now at the penultimate stage of that assignment,” Mr Tumwebaze said.

The CAADP is implemented at national, regional and continental levels, through a 10-year successive strategies and action plans, with the first one adopted in Maputo (Mozambique) in 2003 and the second in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) in 2014 for the period 2015 to 2025. The third will be adopted at Kampala’s ongoing summit.

The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme 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 percent of national budgets to agriculture and rural development, and to achieve agricultural growth rates of at least 6 percent per annum. 

Underlying these investment 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.

How summit started 

In her remarks, Ambassador Sacko, said: “In February 2024, the African Union Commission presented the 4th CAADP biennial review report to African Heads of State and Government during the 37th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly.

They noted with concern that no single country was on track to meet the Malabo CAADP targets by 2025. “As such, they directed the African Union Commission and the African Union Development Agency (AUDU-NEPAD), working with partners, to develop a post-Malabo CAADP agenda that would respond to challenges and opportunities facing Africa’s agrifood systems.

In response to the directive of the Heads of State and Government, the Africa Union led the development of a new 10- year CAADP Strategy and Action Plan: 2026-2035, whose vision is to build resilient and sustainable agrifood systems for a healthy and prosperous Africa, in line with the aspirations of agenda 2063.