EAC farmers seek legalisation of 10 pct agriculture budget allocation

"The EAC Malabo Domestication will bring in renewed commitments, increased awareness among stakeholders, accountability and ownership as well as legal mechanisms to ensure that oversight is exercised to fulfill the 7 commitments of Malabo"

ESAFF - Regional Coordinator, Joe Mzinga.

 To alleviate poverty among small scale farmers and the civil society, which form the largest group in the East African Community (EAC) region, is advocating for each member state to introduce laws to bind the government to allocate at least 10 percent of the national budget to agriculture.

 

Inadequate budgetary allocation and failed disbursements for agriculture development budgets for the benefit of small scale farmers are common across the board -  a problem that keeps majority of smallholder farmers in the region poor, according to East Africa Civil Society Forum (EACSOF) and the Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (ESAFF).

 

The two bodies, representing millions of small scale farmers across the region, want EAC secretariat and the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) to play a bigger role in ensuring poverty alleviation among small scale farmers.

 

The famers want EAC secretariat and EALA to oversight in enforcing implementation of the Malabo Declaration (formerly Maputo Declaration) and its commitments in the bloc, notes a statement issued by ESAFF - Regional Coordinator, Joe Mzinga.

 

This is expected to happen if EAC states legally domesticate African Union Agriculture protocols – Malabo Declaration and Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Programme (CAADP) country compact agreement-into a legal framework and possibly a protocol, which will be adopted by EAC states.

 

Mzinga announced that ESAFF will coordinate a petition to be presented to EALA speaker on making implementation of 10 percent budget allocation as per Malabo Declaration a legal requirement in EAC.

This is according to resolutions reached at EAC Small Scale Farmers Summit 2016, which was organized by EACSOF and ESAFF with the support of European Union.

 

The Malabo Declaration calls for 10 percent agricultural budget inclusion and an annual agricultural growth of 6 percent.  Maputo Declaration came into force in 2003 and only one EAC member state (Rwanda) has consistently increased its agriculture budget above the 10 percent and ensured agriculture annual growth by more than 6 percent.

 

“The Summit calls for EAC States to domesticate Malabo Declaration by putting into law and regulations (legal and regulatory framework) the case of 10 percent of the national budget to agriculture. This will assure greater growth of the sector and lessen poverty among the largest group in the region- small scale farmers,” read the Malabo resolutions.

 

On trade barriers the Summit called for EAC Secretariat and Heads of State Summit to play a bigger role in pushing for enforcement of harmonised trade tariff rules at state level.

 

It also called on EAC States to ensure greater security for small scale farmers as they trade across borders and constantly create business environment that offers support to small-scale farmers across agriculture value chain, including offering value addition to their produce/products.

 

Alfayo Kuruna, Small Scale Farmers Forum Chairman (Kenya)  noted in the statement that domestication of  the African Union (AU) Malabo Declaration of June 2014 by the region and possibly development of a protocol, would bring in renewed commitments.

 

“The EAC Malabo Domestication will bring in renewed commitments, increased awareness among stakeholders, accountability and ownership as well as legal mechanisms to ensure that oversight is exercised to fulfill the 7 commitments of Malabo,” said Kuruna.

 

He said there is a political will and good intention in fulfilling what African governments signed in Maputo in 2003 and in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2014, but implementation is very slow and urgently EAC should domesticate the Malabo Declaration.

 

ESAFF is Eastern and Southern Africa small scale Farmers’ Forum, a network of smallholder farmers that advocate for policy, practice and attitude change that reflects the needs, aspirations, and development of small-scale farmers in east and southern Africa.

 

To-date ESAFF operates in 13 countries in the eastern and southern Africa region. They are: Tanzania through Mviwata, Kenya (Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum – KESSFF), Uganda (ESAFF Uganda), Zambia (ESAFF Zambia), Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe Small Organic Smallholder Famers Forum – ZIMSOFF), Lesotho (Lesotho Small Scale Farmers Forum), South Africa (ESAFF South Africa), Malawi (National Small Scale Farmers Movement -NASFAM), Rwanda (APPPE), Burundi (ESAFF Burundi), Madagascar (Confédération des Agriculteurs Malagas - CPM), Seychelles (Seychelles Farmers Association - SeyFA) and Mozambique (ROSA).