Statement to the Conference of Ministers for Agriculture of the African Union on NEPAD

Maputo, Mozambique, 2 July 2003

Your Excellency Joaquim Alberto Chissano, President of the Republic of Mozambique
Your Excellency Mr Amara Essy, interim Chairman, Commission of the African Union
Your Excellency Prof. Wiseman Nkuhlu, Chairman of the Steering Committee of NEPAD
Your Excellencies, the Ministers of the African Union Member States
Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and other Distinguished Guests,
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me, first, to express my thanks to President Joaquim Chissano and the people of the Republic of Mozambique for welcoming us so warmly in Maputo.

I also wish to thank Mr. Amara Essy, Interim Chair of the Commission of the African Union, for inviting FAO to provide its technical assistance in the organization of this event. This constitutes an interactive forum of the Ministers for Agriculture, in whose hands lies both the capacity and the responsibility to change the lives of the millions that face hunger in Africa. It does the African Union great credit that it continues to strive for adequate commitment to agriculture, a sector that supports 70% of the people of Africa. The President’s personal presence at the opening of this august assembly is testimony to his political commitment to the rural population.

The State of Africa’s Food and Agriculture

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

Approximately 200 million people, one third of the population of Africa, are chronically undernourished. Around 40 million people are currently facing food emergencies caused by natural and man-made disasters. The proportion of the undernourished in the total population in Africa is 28 %, while the corresponding figure for developing Asia and the Pacific and Latin America are 16% and 10 % respectively. In addition, in Sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS has already killed around 7 million agricultural workers since 1985 and that 16 million more may die before 2020.

Agriculture, the leading sector of the African economies, has fallen behind in production and productivity. The average cereal yield (1997/1999) in Africa as a whole is 1225 kg/ha, which is slightly more that one-third of the yield in Asia (3209 kg/ha), and less that half of the yield in Latin America (2900 kg/ha).

Africa experiences recurrent droughts and floods, yet it withdraws only 1.6% of its available water, compared to 14% in Asia. Thus, only 7% of its arable land is irrigated, 3.8% in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 14% in Latin America and Caribbean and 40% in Asia. There is thus a need for a comprehensive programme, focusing on water harvesting and conservation and efficient use, irrigation and drainage. Such a programme would generate substantial and sustainable increases in farm production as well as reduce the vulnerability of rural communities to future crisis.

African soil and natural resources have degraded over time. The traditional method of cultivation and resource utilization, with increases in population, has become unsustainable. In Western and Central Africa, about 50 percent of the farmlands suffer soil erosion and up to 80 percent of rangelands are degraded. Fertilizer use in Africa currently amounts to about 9 kg/ha of arable land per year, compared to 120 kg/ha in South Asia.

Modern inputs, high yielding varieties, vaccines, animal feed, integrated pest management, post-harvest technology, storage, processing and packaging facilities are non-existent or inadequate.

Africa’s rural infrastructure is grossly insufficient. The existing rural road network in Africa, in terms of km of roads for every 1000 square km area, adjusted for population density, is less than what it was in India in 1950. Its rail freight is under 2% of the world total, marine freight capacity 11% and air freight less than 1%.

Africa also has difficulties in accessing international markets because of its inability to produce at competitive prices and its unpreparedness in meeting sanitary, phytosanitary and quality standards. It is also suffering from subsidies of US$ 1 billion a day, tariffs of 60% on raw materials and more that 100% on processed agricultural products, and technical barriers to trade imposed by developed countries.

NEPAD as a Response to Crisis

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

The determination to reverse the current state of affairs led the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), at its 37th Ordinary Session in Lusaka in July 2001, to adopt the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The African Ministers for Agriculture, at the 22nd FAO Regional Conference for Africa in Cairo in February 2002, at the World Food Summit: five years later in Rome in June 2002, and through direct consultations at national level, have played a central role in the preparation of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

To ensure a participatory and interactive process, regional economic groupings, unions, farmers, NGOs, civil society organizations and external development partners have been involved.

The CAADP calls for action under four “pillars”:

• Investment in water control and land management so that agriculture is not dependent on unreliable rains;

• Expansion of rural infrastructure (rural roads, storage, conditioning and processing facilities, markets) for enhancing national, regional and international trade;

• Direct action to increase food supply through competitive production and the provision of safety nets for vulnerable groups;

• Support to science and adoption of technologies as a basis for long-term productivity.

The implementation of this programme will require US$ 19.3 billion per year, which compared to an annual import of agricultural products of US 19.6 billion in 2000-2001. Africa in addition received around US 1.7 billion in food aid.

Expectations and Follow-up Actions

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

The African Ministers for Agriculture, and governments, have already shown commitment and determination to implement NEPAD-CAADP.

Yesterday, the meeting of experts discussed the Action Plan to implement NEPAD-CAADP, including sample of regional programmes and projects. Let this conference provide the opportunity for concrete steps towards the implementation of NEPAD-CAADP by:

Adopting the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and its evolving Action Plans for implementation at national and regional/sub-regional level;

• Organizing a series of national and regional level consultations involving key stakeholders to achieve consensus and collective momentum in that process;

• Promoting and directly supporting the identification and preparation of bankable national and regional projects under the CAADP umbrella; and

• Engaging in organizing national and regional consultative groups for the mobilisation of resources for the projects, as well as realizing essential investment in non-agricultural sectors.

At the international level, there is now a growing recognition of the key role that the agriculture sector must play in economic development and poverty reduction, and the need to reverse trends in resource allocations to agriculture. The international community and, in particular, the World Food Summit and the Millennium Summit, have set the Millennium Development Goals, including that of halving hunger and poverty by 2015.

Africa and NEPAD should take advantage of this environment. FAO reaffirms its commitments and readiness to continue assisting you and the entire continent in this implementation process of the NEPAD. We need, however, to have Africa’s leaders show concretely the priority they give to agriculture, which is the livelihood of 70 % of their populations and 80 % of their poor, by allocating adequate resources of their national budget to this sector and clearly indicating the importance they attach to it in the Poverty Reduction Strategies.

I thank you for your kind attention.

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