Mozambique farmers till their land Photo courtesy

The Alliance for Common Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) ACTESA was conceived as a directive of the African Union/ New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU/NEPAD)’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform meeting in Addis Ababa in September 2007. At that meeting, COMESA was requested to put in place a practical initiative that would enhance trade in regional staple crops as a way of enhancing regional food security and linking smallholder farmers to reliable commodity markets. The proposal was further consolidated by the COMESA Agricultural Ministers meeting in the Seychelles, which endorsed ACTESA as COMESA’s potential flag carrier initiative to deal with rising food prices.

 

Accordingly, ACTESA’s design team was put together through the coordination of COMESA and the financial support of the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

 

The rest is history, as ACTESA was launched on  24th September  2008 by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)’s Ministers of agriculture. On June 8, 2009, ACTESA was recognized by the Council of Ministers of COMESA as a Specialized Agency of COMESA and on June 9, 2009, it was endorsed by the Heads of State of COMESA (the COMESA Authority) as a Specialized Agency to integrate small farmers in national, regional and international markets. Clearly therefore, ACTESA has a big focus on supporting the farmer in the Eastern and Southern Africa region.

 

While the importance of agriculture in the COMESA region cannot be overemphasized, the sector’s competitiveness is dogged by many challenges. 

• Over-dependence on rain-fed agriculture
• Under-funding of the sector among other competing national and regional priorities
• Low agricultural input use, particularly fertilisers
• Constraints in availability and access to high quality seed
• Low labor productivity due to low adoption of available appropriate technologies
• High marketing costs due to poor infrastructure
• Poor availability of market information
• Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements in international and regional markets, and their lack of harmonization
• Dynamic market standards and requirements
• Pests and diseases
• Under-developed agro-processing markets and the high cost of finance. 

Research indicates that of all the factors constraining agricultural productivity and overall growth of the agricultural sector, access to profitable markets is perhaps the most important.  Accordingly, ACTESA is working to build regional cross-border alliances that are strengthening innovative market institutions and linking smallholder farmers to growing national and regional markets for staple foods.

 

ACTESA will over the next few years move millions of smallholder farmers in our region from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture through innovative linkages to instruments such as commodity exchanges, warehouse receipt programmes and other appropriate mechanisms. In this regard therefore ACTESA responds to the objectives of Pillar II of the CAADP agenda, which highlights the importance of improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access. Ultimately, growth in staple food markets will lead to long-term decreased humanitarian aid needs in COMESA member States thus contributing to the aspirations of CAADP Pillar III on food and nutrition security.

 

The first ACTESA stakeholder meeting in Livingstone, Zambia, endorsed a number of targeted commodity groups for ACTESA to focus on: 

• Grains and pulses, such as maize and common beans;
• Roots and Tubers, such as cassava and sweet potatoes;
• Oilseeds, such as groundnuts, soya beans and sunflowers;
• Livestock, of which COMESA has the largest population in Africa;
• Forest and Natural Resource products such as honey;
• Horticultural products, such as green vegetables and fruits;
• Tree Crops such as coffee;
• Agricultural Inputs, including seeds and fertilizers. 

In these commodity groups, ACTESA will work to:

 

(i)         Improve the policy environment and competitiveness;

(ii)        Improve and expand market facilities and other key services; and

(iii)       Increase the integration of producers in commercial markets.

 

Among the key market areas of focus are value added markets.  We note that data available from UNIDO points to the fact in the developed World, over 98% of all primary agricultural products are sold to agro processing facilities. In our region, only 30% of our agro products are sold to processing facilities.  Accordingly, some 30% of all cereals produced and up to 50% of all fruits produced are wasted. ACTESA will work to expand agro-processing facilities throughout the COMESA region in order to capture the full value of our production and expand employment opportunities for the population.

 

Overall, ACTESA will work to ensure we get results in increasing:  

• The Number of Producers/Associations Supported (Commodity Focus)
• Number of firms / enterprises supported
• Number of PPP forged
• Number of Policy reforms/procedures passed
• Percentage change in intra regional trade (Commodities)
• Increase in purchases from smallholders
• Increase in the percentage of our agricultural products that are processed 

We are determined to raise our cooperation in confronting the many challenges that face us to a new high.  We look forward to a region in which, agricultural productivity is driven by an expanded market and where consumers will have access to quality products at affordable rates.

 

By Chris Muyunda,

CEO, ACTESA.