Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), farmers’ representatives and civil society organisations have called for adequate budget towards agriculture sector so as to reduce huge food imports incurred by East African countries.

The call was made on Wednesday in Nairobi Kenya, during the opening of 3rd EAC agriculture Budget Summit.

The summit is being held under the theme; "Promoting an Inclusive, People-Centred EAC Budget Process: Incentives for Prudent Public and Private Investment in Agriculture”.

Speaking during the event, Mathias Kasamba, the chairperson of agriculture, tourism and natural resources committee at EALA said: "If we consider how much food EAC countries import and money spent on it, you will realise some of these countries are becoming net food importers. We need to improve quantity and quality of food in EAC countries.

He said that in order for Africa to adequately feed its population for over 170 million population, there is need of quick implementation of commitments to agricultural transformation set up by African Union.

According to Jean Baptiste Havugimana, the director of productive sectors at EAC secretariat the regional agricultural investment plan for 2017-2025, seeks to ensure the region feeds itself and even export.

In order to achieve the plan, experts said, there is need of more efforts by member states to domesticate the Malabo declarations on agricultural transformation into national agricultural investments plans which fit into annual national budget.

Malabo Declarations were adopted in June 2014 in Equatorial Guinee by the African Union Heads of State following the previous Maputo Declaration on the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

CAADP had broad targets of allocating at least 10 percent of public expenditures towards agriculture sector to help annual agricultural productivity grow by 6 percent in agricultural GDP.

In implementing the commitments, Havugimana said, there are challenges such dependence on imports, subsistence production, availability of fertilizers, seeds and pesticides that are quality.

Another challenge, he added, is post-harvest losses considering the study by FAO and Kilimo Trust that around 30 per cent of harvest is lost adding that solving this is part of answers to reduce importation bill of food.

Rwanda on track

In terms of implementing the commitments Rwanda is the best performing country in Africa in implementing the 7 commitments under the Malabo commitments with a score of 6.1.

This is according to a scorecard on the implementation of these commitments, whose report was presented during the meeting.

"All commitments were not achieved. Uganda has 4.5 score card, Burundi with 4.7, Kenya has 4.8 scorecard. However Rwanda is on good track with 6.1 scorecard which is the best in implementing seven commitments under the Malabo declaration,” he said

The report shows that out of seven commitments, the Eastern Africa region falls short on enhancing investment finance in agriculture, ending hunger by 2025 and enhancing resilience to climate variability.

The report shows the region is on track in four commitment areas namely recommitment to CAADP process, halving poverty through agriculture by 2025, boosting intra-African trade in agriculture commodities and enhancing mutual accountability for actions and results.

"All countries have not reached 10 per cent budget allocation to agriculture. Although there are financial issues, even the little allocation is not well utilized. Effective mechanisms   of well utilization of the funds allocated to agriculture are needed,” Havugi

James Butare, the head of programmes and policies at Action Aid in Rwanda said that the synergy between government of Rwanda, civil society, private sector and farmers should involve in budget preparation.

"Seeing that Rwanda 6 score card out of ten, it is still little considering malnutrition that is still at 32 per cent and unemployment that is at 13 per cent. Enough budget allocation to agriculture is one of better interventions. We have to think of what these figures mean to people especially youth and women,” he said.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw