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Showing posts with label SADC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SADC. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Yamdjeu says SADC can feed Africa



The head of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), Dr. Augustin Wambo Yamdjeu has said that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has the capacity to feed Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.


He made this known to NaijaAgroNet at the on-going week-long inaugural meeting of Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment at the African Union headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.


According to him, although Southern Africa boasts massive arable land water resources suitable for large scale crop and livestock production with great potential for fish farming region, the continent’s food basket region remains underutilized due to low value addition along the agricultural value chain.


This, he also said include the adequate provision for storage of produce, which incidentally is not limited to the region, but has remain work in progress across the continent.


Presently, NaijaAgroNet gathered, over 6 million people across Angola, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe are at risk of severe food shortages because of unresolved cycle of drought and flooding, just as aid agencies noted the crisis remain largely unnoticed.


To this effect, Dr. Yamdjeu said, the SADC region should work towards enhancing and developing agriculture to transform the region's economy so as to address rising poverty and growing inequality.
Yamdjeu equally said that natural resources are national assets that should be explored for the benefits of all citizens, even as he lamented the economic disparity which has become a global setback.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa
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Pix: Head, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), Dr. Augustin Wambo Yamdjeu

Friday, August 14, 2015

Agriculture, food security, prudent management vital in SADC region



The Director of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the Southern African Development Community ( SADC), Ms Margaret Nyirenda, said agriculture, food security and prudent management of natural resources are vital in SADC region, NaijaAgroNet reports.

She said that food production in most parts of the region was hampered by unfavourable climatic conditions, increase in population, poor health and sanitation, adding that SADC is facing a cereal deficit of over six million tonnes emanating from the poor rainfall and floods that befell the region in the 2014/2015 season.

Nyirenda was addressing the 35th Ordinary Summit of Heads of States and Government in Gaborone. She said the 2014/2015 rainfall season was poor in most parts of the region with prolonged dry spells in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, southern Angola and Zimbabwe,  gathered NaijaAgroNet.

She added that Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique experienced both floods and prolonged dry spells and that the poor rainfall led to an unsatisfactory regional food security situation for the 2015/2016 year.

Ms Nyirenda, NaijaAgroNet learnt,  said the deficit of 6.33 million tonnes of cereal include the five most consumed cereals in the region such as maize, wheat, rice, millet and sorghum compared to a surplus of 1.21 million tonnes in the 2014/15 year .

She said the regional cereal availability for the 2015/16 was estimated at 40.23 million tonnes representing a drop of 22 per cent from 45.62 million tonnes last year. Ms Nyirenda added that the requirement for the region this year was estimated at 32.93 million tonnes, reflecting an overall maize deficit of 1.20 million tonnes.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE/ED,OPs
 
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Pix: Ms Margaret Nyirenda,

Friday, April 24, 2015

200 dead as late rains, floods threaten food security – SADC





Executive Secretary, Southern African development Community, (SADC) Dr. Lawrence Stergomena Tax, has at a recent SADC Council of Ministers meeting held in Harare, Zimbabwe confirmed that late last year’s floods and rains of early this year, has threatened food security in the Southern Africa region, NaijaAgroNet reports.

NaijaAgroNet learnt that the food security situation in the region is expected to be less than satisfactory during the 2015/16 marketing year as a result of poor rains in most parts of the region, dry spells in some areas, and floods in other areas.

Dr Tax, NaijaAgroNet learnt, expressed dissatisfaction over the situation, noting that SADC would continue to monitor the situation and support early warning for food security and vulnerability assessments in the member states.

In a report on food security assessment presented at the 34th SADC Summit held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in August last year, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the region had recorded a cereal surplus of more than 670 000 metric tonnes during the previous agricultural marketing season year.

This, according to the report, was mainly attributed to good rainfall, better access to inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, as well as credit facilities and extension services.
NaijaAgroNet also learnt that the floods of which affected parts of Southern Africa between late last year and early this year, left 200 people dead and 500,000 displaced in Malawi, while in Mozambique, about 27, 838 households suffered losses in cash crops.

Meanwhile SADC during the council meeting, deliberated on innovative ways of dealing with problems associated with changes in weather patterns, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Chairperson of the SADC Council of Ministers, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, said it was now time for the region to seek ways to curb increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods which adversely affects key sectors of the regional economy including agriculture.

Mumbengegwi, who is also Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister, told NaijaAgroNet that SADC to help deal with poor rains, would invest more in regional water infrastructure development such as irrigation, allowing the region to farm all year around and not only depend on climatic conditions to deal with poor rains.

As agriculture is the backbone of most economies in southern Africa, and more than 62 percent of the SADC region’s 277 million people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the Council of Ministers, would canvass for an increased budget allocations to agriculture as well as targeted subsidy programmes that would result in farmers accessing agricultural inputs and farm implements at cheaper rates.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE 

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