Let’s walk the talk on agriculture in Africa, top AUC Commissioner Josefa Sacko appeals

_{In Lusaka, Zambia.}

Despite the African Union Commission’s (AUC) efforts, a lack of investment remains a significant barrier to achieving the goals of the Maputo Protocol and Malabo Declaration aimed at enhancing food security across the continent.

Further, insufficient political will to fully invest in agriculture has hindered efforts to combat poverty and hunger in Africa.

During a powerful presentation on July 25, 2024 to the Post-Malabo Technical Working Groups in Lusaka, Zambia, Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, the Commissioner of AUC-DARBE, criticised many African governments for failing to invest adequately in the sector and in educating and empowering human capital and infrastructure to boost production.

She pointed out the predicaments of some of the few farmers who are unable to harvest their produce as they continue to face a myriad of challenges from storage to transportation to lack of ready market hence leading to a large percentage of the produce going to waste.

“Agriculture is crucial for income and livelihood in most African countries. However, the failure of member states to adequately fund its growth and sustainability has led us to repeatedly meet and search for solutions to these issues,” Sacko stated. “It’s absurd that the continent is still grappling with food security challenges when significant emphasis has been placed on revitalizing the sector.”

“Agriculture is a key sector in most of our African countries as a source of income and subsistence but failure of member states to inject enough funds in promoting its growth and sustainability is what has seen us continue meeting year after year to try to find out what could be the problem considering they have their financial budgets for the same,” Sacko said.

“These are some of the issues that have brought us here to not only brainstorm but come up with lasting solutions to have a hunger free Africa,” she added.

At the same time, she observed that it was absurd for the continent to be still grappling with matters food security when it should be standing on its own considering the much emphasize has been put in to revamp the sector.

She compared Africa’s situation to that of the United States (US) and European Union (EU) countries, which have robust agricultural ministries supporting sectors from livestock to crop production.

“Look at the United States and even European Union (EU) countries, they have in place ministries of agriculture that are gigantic starting from livestock, crop production, fish farming to ensure that there is sufficient food and robust supply chain for its citizens,” she noted.

Sacko, who has served two terms as the African Union Commissioner, urged African nations, home to over 1.4 billion people across 55 countries heavily reliant on agriculture, to create job opportunities by empowering rural communities to engage in sustainable food production.

To her, a more agriculture-empowered country, especially in rural areas, would be the perfect answer to sustainable food production besides raising steady revenue streams both for farmers and the respective countries.

“It is time we empower the 70 percent of our population that is based in local areas by upscaling our investments on food security as one way of creating employment to them through the agrifood system right from the production, distribution and storage. And it is my hope that this validation workshop consisting of the 13 working groups for the post Malabo conference that is finalizing its work on how best the continent can stand on its own as far as matters food security is concerned, will offer better solutions on the implementation process,” she stated.

“The challenges are significant, and this sector has not received the necessary attention and support despite being strategic for the continent’s socioeconomic transformation. During the African Union reforms, I fought for this sector to remain independent, believing it was unfair to merge it with economic affairs, especially as we were on the path to achieving its development potential,” Sacko concluded.