Africa has been urged to increase budgetary allocation on Agriculture in order to improve food security and curb malnutrition.
Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, chief executive officer the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) said most African countries are yet to fulfill their obligation under the Maputo declaration that requires States to allocate 10 per cent of their annual budget to Agriculture.
Speaking during the fifth annual EAT Stockholm Food forum, Dr Mayaki said some countries such as Rwanda have met the commitment but more needs to be done.
“Agriculture is a key component of African economies and this is the reason why we want all the African States to meet the Maputo declaration by allocating more resources to the sector,” he said.
At the Second Ordinary Assembly of the African Union in July 2003 in Maputo, African Heads of State and Government endorsed the “Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa”.
The Declaration contained several important decisions regarding agriculture, but prominent among them was the “commitment to the allocation of at least 10 percent of national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development policy implementation within five years.
A lot of countries, including Kenya, have underfunded agriculture sector. Over a decade since the declaration, Kenya has been allocating less than five per cent of the annual budget to agriculture despite contributing more than 25 per cent to GDP.
About half the world’s population is suffering from malnutrition and hunger is again on the rise globally. At the same time, overweight and obesity continue to increase, impacting more than 2 billion children and adults. Food production is also the biggest cause of global environmental degradation.
Gunhild Stordalen, the executive chair of EAT said with just 12 years to achieve the world’s most ambitious development targets – the UN Sustainable Development Goals – there is an urgent need to transform food system to put the world on a path that will support a health world population and planet.
“Until now, we have had no goals, facts or narrative for the food system as a whole, to promote the health of both people and the planet,” said Dr Stordalen.
The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health will later this year release its report- Healthy Diets From Sustainable Food Systems, marking the first collaborative effort to set global, scientific targets for a food system transformation.
The leaders also raised concern over the challenges of climate change with agricultural sector being the single-largest contributor to climate change, deforestation and biodiversity loss.
Christiana Figueres,the UN convenor of Mission 2020, said that not enough progress has been made to meet climate goals for land use and food systems by the end of this decade.
“We won’t meet the 2020 goals for these areas,” said Figueres, who oversaw the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate.
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