Nairobi — The African Union (AU) has adopted a brand new agricultural improvement technique geared toward growing the continent’s agri-food output by 45 % by 2035, remodeling agri-food methods.
The choice follows the African Union Extraordinary Summit on the Publish-Malabo Complete Africa Agriculture Growth Programme (CAADP), held in Kampala, Uganda.
The summit endorsed the 10-year CAADP Technique and Motion Plan, alongside the Kampala CAADP Declaration on Constructing Resilient and Sustainable Agri-Meals Methods in Africa, set for implementation between 2026 and 2035.
“Within the Kampala declaration, the 55 AU member states set forth six commitments that ought to rework and strengthen the agri-food system on the continent,” the AU acknowledged.
The heads of state and authorities famous Africa’s projected inhabitants progress to 2.5 billion by 2050, emphasizing the necessity for elevated agricultural manufacturing, productiveness, meals processing, and commerce to fulfill future meals demand.
They pledged to accentuate sustainable meals manufacturing, agro-industrialization, and commerce.
The technique contains formidable targets reminiscent of lowering post-harvest losses by 50 %, tripling intra-African commerce in agri-food merchandise and inputs by 2035, and growing the share of domestically processed meals to 35 % of agri-food GDP by 2035.
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni urged African leaders to advertise worth addition, asserting that the continent should transfer away from dependency on meals imports.
“This Africa of getting no meals and begging is just not the true Africa, however the colonial and neo-colonial Africa. It’s a disgrace. The battle for worth addition has been an enormous one as a result of lobbies wish to maintain Africa as a raw-materials-producing continent,” Museveni stated.
“Including worth to agricultural merchandise ensures vertical integration within the agricultural sector–from the backyard to the desk and from the farm to the wardrobe,” he stated.
He additionally referred to as for the elimination of non-tariff obstacles (NTBs), which he stated disrupt agricultural manufacturing.
“Uganda simply produces all kinds of agricultural merchandise. Nonetheless, manufacturing is disrupted when some brother international locations say they’ve bumper crops and delicense Ugandan merchandise”, he added.
African Union Fee (AUC) Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed concern in regards to the sluggish progress of the CAADP Programme, carried out since 2014 beneath the Malabo Declaration.
“The assorted biennial evaluations of the commitments made by Member States, initiated in 2017 beneath this declaration, actually present progress in the direction of attaining the set aims, however at an unsatisfactory tempo,” Faki stated.
He counseled the preparatory work by the African Union Fee, AUDA-NEPAD, Regional Financial Communities, member state specialists, and companions in drafting the Kampala Declaration.
Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie emphasised the pressing want for collective dedication and motion to realize Africa’s imaginative and prescient for a food-sovereign and affluent continent.
AU Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Growth, Blue Economic system, and Sustainable Surroundings, Amb. Josefa Sacko, described the Kampala Declaration as distinct from the Malabo and Maputo declarations on account of its complete technique and motion plan.
“We now have a transparent roadmap, a principle of change that outlines the pathway to transformation, life like and implementable strategic aims, a broad coverage scope enhancing meals system approaches, and targets that mirror the continent’s aspirations,” she stated
The Complete African Agricultural Growth Programme (CAADP) is a cornerstone of the AU’s Agenda 2063, geared toward elevating agricultural productiveness, growing public funding in agriculture, and stimulating financial progress via agriculture-led improvement to remove starvation and cut back poverty throughout Africa.
