Delegates taking part at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN-20).
African Ministers have reiterated the need for governments
to allocate enough resources towards agriculture.
In draft resolutions at the ongoing 20th session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN-20), they said there is a need to scale up resources if hunger is to be tackled.
“Recalling the Maputo declaration on agriculture and food security in Africa (Assembly/AU/Decl.7 (II)), in which African heads of state and government committed to allocate at least 10 per cent of national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development within five years and adopt the comprehensive Africa agriculture development programme framework,” part of the draft resolutions states.
The Africa Agriculture Development Programme framework comprises four pillars, including sustainable land and water management.
The ministers attending the meeting are concerned that resources allocated to agriculture are not enough.
The Malabo Declaration on accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods in 2014 also set an ambitious target, including ending hunger by 2025.
In the financial year 2025-26, Kenya's National Treasury allocated Sh47.6 billion for programmes under the agriculture sector.
These include Sh8 billion for the Fertiliser Subsidy Programme; Sh10.2 billion for the National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project; Sh800.0 million for the Small Scale Irrigation and Value Addition Project; Sh1.2 billion for the Food Security and Crop Diversification Project and Sh5.8 billion for the Food Systems Resilience Project.
The total expenditure in the financial year 2025-26 budget is projected at Sh4,291.9 billion, equivalent to 22.3 per cent of GDP.
A recent UN report warns that millions of people in five global hunger hotspots are at risk of famine and death unless urgent humanitarian action is taken.
However, Kenya is among 10 countries that have been removed from the Hunger Hotspots list due to improved food security, offering a rare glimmer of hope amid worsening global hunger trends.
The joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme showed that Sudan, Palestine, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali face the highest risk of extreme hunger and catastrophic food insecurity.
These communities, according to the report, are already grappling with famine or are on the brink due to a combination of conflict, economic shocks and climate-related disasters.
The Hunger Hotspots: FAO-WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity report stated that Kenya, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Zambia and Zimbabwe have now been removed from the hotspot list.
The ministers also reiterated that there is a need to scale up efforts aimed at protecting soils.
In 2024, African Heads of State and Government concluded the Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit on May 9, 2024, endorsing the Nairobi Declaration on Fertiliser and Soil Health.
This declaration underscores crucial commitments to revive the nutritional balance of the continent's exhausted soils.
The Nairobi Declaration encapsulates the key discussions among African leaders, with a focus on fostering multi-stakeholder partnerships and investments to drive policies, finance, research and development, markets and capacity building for fertiliser and sustainable soil health management across Africa.
Thirteen commitments were made during the conference.
They included the tripling of domestic production and distribution of certified quality organic and inorganic fertilisers by 2034 to improve access and affordability for smallholder farmers.
Other commitments included making available by 2034, to at least 70 per cent of smallholder farmers on the continent, targeted agronomic recommendations for specific crops, soils and climatic conditions to ensure greater efficiency and sustainable use of fertilisers.
Ensuring the Africa Fertiliser Financing Mechanism is operationalised to improve production, procurement and distribution of organic and inorganic fertilisers and soil health interventions was also part of the commitment.
