8 August, 2025
Lusaka, Zambia
In a rousing address to the Ninth COMESA Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment, H.E. Moses Vilakati, issued a powerful call to action: the Zambia–Zimbabwe Common African Agro-Park (ZimZam CAAP) must be launched before the end of this year.
Speaking to Ministers and senior officials from across the COMESA region, Commissioner Vilakati underscored that the ZimZam CAAP is not a pilot, but the first operational site of a continental system of integrated, cross-border agro-industrial zones under the African Union’s Common African Agro-Parks (CAAPs) framework.
“This launch will be a historic milestone, not only for SADC and COMESA, but for Africa at large, as we respond concretely to the Kampala Declaration’s call to mobilize $100 billion in agri-food investments by 2035,” he declared.
Commissioner Vilakati applauded COMESA’s leadership in driving regional value chain strategies across agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and market regulation, aligning them with the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the CAADP Kampala Declaration. He pointed to the ZimZam CAAP as a blueprint for mobilizing public–private investments, boosting intra-African trade under the AfCFTA, and securing Africa’s agro-industrial sovereignty.
The Commissioner’s rallying cry came alongside a report on his first 100 days in office, during which the AU launched the African Youth Agro-Tech Fund, activated the Africa Soil Observatory in 33 Member States, and secured $55 million in early-stage funding for transformative agricultural and climate initiatives.
Vilakati urged COMESA Member States to:
- Harmonize trade and regulatory protocols to reduce non-tariff barriers;
- Transition from project-based interventions to permanent institutional products, such as a Regional Food Balance Sheet and Strategic Grain Reserves;
- Embed climate resilience as a core principle in all future agriculture, water, and energy systems.
“Africa is not poor; it is underinvested. Our soils are not barren; they are under-researched. Our youth are not jobless; they are under-valued,” he stressed.
“We will not manage poverty; we will create wealth. We will not await miracles from the North; we will cultivate our own prosperity, with our own hands, on our own terms.”
The meeting, held under the theme “Accelerating Regional Integration through the Development of Regional Value Chains in Climate-Resilient Agriculture, Mining, and Tourism,” concluded with a united commitment to accelerate CAAPs implementation and ensure that the Zambia–Zimbabwe CAAP is inaugurated before year-end 2025.
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