By Joyce Gyekye
An estimated 868 million people in Africa experienced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2022, with over 290 million facing severe food insecurity.
This, according to a report by World Vision International, was due to conflict, extreme weather events, and the effects of COVID-19 as well as the war in Ukraine. The report indicated that hunger trends on the continent were showing progress until 2019, when COVID hit.
This, including other factors, thwarted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) 2015 to 2025 that was signed in Malabo in 2014. That declaration, signed by African Heads of state, aimed, among others, at halving poverty by 2025 through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation, ending hunger, as well as entreating African governments to commit 10 percent of national budget annually to the agricultural sector.
But these goals, initially adopted by the African Union (AU) from 2005 to 2015, through to 2025, have not achieved the desired aims. This is because countries are not on track on achieving the targets of ending hunger, addressing food insecurity and poverty.
This compelled leaders of the continent to adopt a new 10-year agricultural development strategy at their extraordinary summit in Kampala, Uganda, in January 2025.
The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Peasant Farmers Association, Bismark Nortey, who was at the CAADP summit this year, said the Kampala Declaration upheld the 10 percent public expenditure commitment from Maputo to Malabo.
He said the difference between the previous Declarations and that of 2025 to 2035 is “The shift from focusing solely on agricultural-led growth to a broader agrifood system approach, which is supposed to realise the connections between economic development and other sectors of the economy, including trade”.
He attributed the poor performance of the agricultural sector to lack of infrastructure, including irrigation, warehouses and road network needed to stimulate growth, to a lack of investment.
“Africa would need at least 1 billion dollars every year to recover infrastructure deficit for only agricultural,“ he stated.
On the 10 percent national budget requested that governments commit to the agricultural sector, Bismark Nortey said Ghana does less than two percent.
With that, he said, “More than 50 percent in 2023/2024 went into providing agriculture subsidies in the form of fertilizers and seeds to farmers under the Plant for Food and Jobs, (PFJ) by the previous government”.
He expressed worry that less than 20 percent of the allocated budget went into capital expenditure, which is critically needed to improve the sector.
The CEO of Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, Anthony Morrison, who was part of Technical Group 5 during the Kampala summit, called on African leaders to show commitment to addressing the priorities of the continent.
This, he indicated, should be by committing public funding to promoting agrifood systems, stressing the importance of “skills competitiveness of labour to move efficiency”.
He expressed worry about the cost of doing business, especially with the number of institutions that members of the association had registered with and the cost implications on their businesses.
The CEO of the Chamber called on government to establish the Agribusiness Value Chain and Industry Regulatory Authority to serve as a one-stop system to facilitate licensing regime for those in the business.
To help achieve AU’s Kampala Declaration on food security and sustainability, Kenya will from May 20-22 host a summit, Financing for Africa’s Food Systems (FINAS).
The Director of the summit, Dr Charity Mutegi, said the platform will provide stakeholders the opportunity to propose sustainable solutions for financing agri-food systems on the continent.
She said the FINAS summit is aimed at revolutionising agri-food systems through innovative and inclusive solutions on four areas.
They are Inclusive Food Systems Policy, Funding Resilience Climate Mitigation and Adaptation, Youth A- Gender as well as Innovation, Data and Technology.
On funding for climate-related issues, said Dr Mutegi, “The summit will be addressing the need for de-risking food system actors and investments while sealing the leaking pipeline for smallholder farmers.”
