Launched during the 2022 Africa Summit on Industrialization and Economic Diversification in Niamey, Niger, the Common African Agro-Parks programme seeks to create regional agro-industrial hubs to boost food security, achieve the continent’s food sovereignty, as well as boost Intra-African trade.
Africa currently imports food worth USD$50 billion annually from the rest of the world, with the amount expected to double to USD$110billion, if urgent action is not taken, according to the 2022 Africa Agriculture Status report.
This heavy reliance on food imports has made the continent most vulnerable to recent global shocks such as the food crisis from the Russia-Ukrainian war, supply chain disruptions, climate change and the Covid19 pandemic outbreak, further exposing the continent’s growing population to soaring food prices, among other challenges.
To reverse this, the African Union has launched the Common African Agro-Parks programme, an initiative that aims to create agro-industrial hubs in the different regions of the continent to increase the supply of locally produced agricultural goods, reduce food imports and boost intra- African trade and investment through boosting value-added processing of agricultural products.
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the Summit of Industrialization on Friday, November 25, 2022, in Niamey Niger, the AU Commissioner for the department of agriculture rural development, blue economy and sustainable environment and Chairperson of the CAAPS steering Committee, H.E Ambassador Josepha Sacho said, “Africa has to have its food sovereignty, Africa has to have a basket when we have shocks on the continent.”
According to Sacho, CAAPS was initiated in 2019 to be implemented within the framework of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063.
“We are talking about the AfCFTA which is a platform that we can use to trade among ourselves. If you look at the decision of our state’s elders in government in the Malabo declaration, they committed to triple intra-African trade and for us in our department, we know that 75% of trading among Africans are agricultural products and services.”
“Agriculture industry and trade are all linked together. When you look at most products like coffee, cotton, and chocolates, they are derived from agriculture.” She added.
The CAAPS constitute five large common agro-industrial zones, that will be established in suitable agro-ecological areas in Africa for the selected commodities, one in each of the five geographical regions in Africa that will serve as major agricultural development hubs, with transboundary mega agro-industries and food supply corridors on the continents.
Each agro-industrial zone will therefore be dominated by specialized agricultural commodities to produce a sufficient quantity of the commodity that can gradually offset the import bill of such commodities.
Sacho says the commodities in question include regional staples maize, and cassava, among others.
“I see this is a way we can unlock the potential of industrialization because Africa has all the land, we have the youngest population among all the regions, and we have all the natural resources whether it in agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and minerals.
We have all these assets and potential to speed up with our mission so that we can solve the problem of our people.”For implementation, Sacho says they will engage the private sector, stressing that the Common African Agro-Parks programme is an African initiative, by Africans, for Africans.
The CAAPs is coordinated by the AU Commission, through the Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE); the Economic Development, Trade, Industry and Mining (ETIM) in partnership with the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); – African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim Bank); and the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA).
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