. Ngwenya

By ANDREW PHIRI –
THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has called for increased investment in the agricultural sector to create jobs for citizens.
COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya said investments in agriculture were important to support the food and nutrition security needs of the people.
Mr Ngwenya was  speaking in Livingstone at Chrismar Hotel yesterday during the COMESA Inaugural Regional Agriculture Investment Forum (NAIF).
The need for more agriculture investment in COMESA countries was urgent.
A total of US$ 480 million was made in pledges to support Zambia’s National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP) at a recent Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) business meeting.
Mr Ngwenya said according  to current  statistics, Africa was still a net importer of food as compared to other regions in the world.
“Therefore, the need for agriculture investment is urgent and very urgent indeed, so allow me to take this opportunity to encourage member countries to take stock of every resource that they have mobilized under the CAADP framework.
“In this way we will be able to know how much we have mobilised and its impact on the livelihoods of our people,’’ Mr Ngwenya.
The current food situation globally and in Africa, according to the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) report for 2014, was that the global cereal production was expected to decrease by 9 per cent by the end of this year.
The world cereal trade would also decrease by four per cent in the same period but, however, in developing countries both cereal and trade production would increase by 0.2 per cent.
Mr Ngwenya said Africa as a whole was poised to increase cereal production by 2.9 per cent with the major increase coming from Southern Africa with up to 14.7 per cent.
Southern Province Minister Daniel Munkombwe said there was need for COMESA member States to ensure that production costs were reduced.
Mr Munkombwe said Zambia had managed to move forward by implementing some of the programmes introduced by COMESA.
The country was also promoting Private Public Partnership (PPP) in order to achieve better results in the agriculture sector.
He urged the delegates to the meeting to come up with suggestions that would be helpful to their Governments.