Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation, And Water Development Kondwani Nankhumwa said this during the Ministerial Session of the Third Ordinary Session of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee (STC) On Agriculture, Rural Development, Water And Environment which has been taking place at the African Union Headquarters, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The meeting has been taking place from Monday, October 21 and is expect to end on Friday, October 25.
Among others, Nankhumwa said Malawi was committed to all AU Declarations as shown by aligning its agriculture development agenda and policy instruments to the CAADP, the Maputo (2003), and the Malabo (2014) Declarations.
CAADP (Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme) is Africa’s policy framework for agricultural transformation and was declared in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2003. The AU Summit made the first declaration on CAADP as an integral part of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
He said, among other notable achievements, Malawi has so far aligned its National Agriculture Policy of 2016 and National Agriculture Investment Plan of 2017 to all the continental agriculture development frameworks and instruments.
“Malawi has allocated more financial resources to the sector in line with both the Maputo (2003) and Malabo (2014) Declarations consistently; invested in irrigation, fisheries, aquaculture, crops, livestock, and water development.
“We have established the Centre of Excellence in Aquaculture and Fisheries at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources,” he said.
Nankhumwa also reported that the country has strengthened capacity for the prevention and control of animal, plant diseases and pests of socio-economic importance.
He however noted that, despite strides made in agriculture, Malawi’s food security has been affected by climate change manifested by droughts and floods.
“[But] as a country we have not resigned to climate change fate as we are investing in resilience building to mitigate the effects of climate change now and in future,” he said.
Specialized Technical Committees are responsible for ensuring supervision, follow-up and evaluation of implementation of decisions taken by the organs of the African Union; coordination and harmonization of projects and programmes; as well as providing critical review of strategic documents for endorsement by AU Policy organs.
The Committee, which was inaugurated in 2015, meets every two years in order to discharge the responsibilities vested upon them by the African Union Assembly.
According to Carol Jilombo from the Ethiopian Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture, top on the agenda of the 2019 meeting was to review progress in implementation of the decisions that were taken during the first and second ordinary sessions of the STC in 2015 and 2017, respectively; and also to consider and adopt strategic documents related to Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment for onward submission to the Executive Council for consideration.
