Small scale farmers vows to engage on CAAP processes

Small scale farmers and pastoralists in the eastern and southern Africa (ESA) region are determined to engage with their countries in the implementation of the NEPAD framework for agriculture development -CAADP.

 Speaking at the end of a training workshop organized at Egerton University in Nakuru, Kenya, small scale farmers leaders from 15 countries in the ESA region says gone are the times where they will be sidelined in agriculture policy processes… “We will engage our governments to ensure that CAAPD is implemented in favour of small producers including pastoralists community” said Samuel Permuatt a leader from pastoralists community in Kenya. His call was reiterated by Omar Kutara, a farmer leaders from Northern Turkana, Kenya who said that top down policies have impoverished further the pastoral community in Sub-Saharan Africa.

CAADP is the acronym for the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program that was agreed under the African Union, Maputo Declaration on Food Security in July 2003. Under the Maputo Declaration African governments committed to invest at least 10% of their national budget into agriculture sector and ensure 6% growth of the sector annually. Following the fact that by the end of the year 2009, most African countries had not reached that level, African Summit in July 2009 in Sirte, Libya called for members to respect the pledge by the year 2015.

The workshop brought together small producers who are both small scale farmers and pastoralists from Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi, Madagascar, and Seychelles. Other came from South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

ESAFF leadership that was represented from 11 member country thanked ACORD for organizing the event. Elizabeth Mpofu (Zimbabwe) and Moses Shaha (Kenya) said the event gave small scale farmers the best “weapon” to fight for their rightful position in the CAADP processes. “Only Ethiopia, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda have signed CAADP, from now on we will keep our eyes open to the processes in other countries to ensure that farmers are on board” said Shaha.

Speaking at a closing ceremony ACORD Kenya officers; Emime Ndihokubwayo and Angela Wauye said the workshop was not an end but rather a beginning of empowering small scale farmers in Africa on policy issues and agriculture productivity. They added that another training workshop was planned for French speaking farmers in West Africa.

The Trainer of Trainers workshop in Nakuru was supported by the government of Canada through CIDA.