By Darlington Mwendabai
Lusaka, Zambia
THE Common African Agro-Parks Programme (CAAPs) prospects to externalize about US$50 billion per year from imported food commodities from outside the continent, it has been revealed.
CAAPs was established in 2019 as on of the initiatives of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and given the mandate to boost local processing and regional trade for agricultural commodities and their value chains.
However, the trend is about to change owing to the promotion of intra-trade in Africa.
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) assistant secretary general in charge of the programme Mohammed Kadah said CAAPs seeks to reverse externalization of funds by promoting cross-border agriculture value chains and attracting investments in agro-industrialization.
Dr. Kadah was speaking during the opening of a coordination meeting of CAAPs recently.
“Over the last five years, African countries have collectively spent approximately US$50 billion annually to import food products. Shockingly, this figure is expected to rise to US$110 billion per year by 2025…” he said.
He said with the projected increase in Africa’s population by 2050, there will be need for significant increase in agricultural production to ensure sufficient, affordable, healthy and nutritious food for all Africans.
Dr. Kadah said Africa should draw lessons from the disruption of supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed the continent’s vulnerability to external shocks.
He said the crisis in Ukraine also highlighted Africa’s dependence on external sources for food products and agricultural inputs.
Dr. Kadah said the two episodes demonstrate the need to break free from dependence on international food markets.
“It is clear that Africa’s inability to claim its food market, which is currently outsourced from the rest of the world, is a significant source of concern for African countries and international partners” he said.
Dr. Kadah also said lack of Industrial capacity to process and add value to raw agricultural products results in post-harvest losses and meagre revenues for farmers.
He thanked the African Union (AU) for the initiative to establish five common agro-industrial zones in the five geographical regions of the continent.
And African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) head of Environmental sustainability division Mamadou Diakhite said full implementation of CAAPs strategies will promote regional agro-forestry industrialization in Africa.
The CAAPs programme was ratified as a flagship initiative of the AU Agenda 2063 during its 36th Summit in February 2023 to create transboundary mega agro-industrial hubs across Africa.
This falls within the CAADP framework and the AU Agenda 2063.
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