TABIO Member ESAFF has just published this declaration:

East and Southern African Small Scale Farmers Federation

ESAFF Declaration on the current state of food and agriculture policy in eastern and southern Africa

We the small scale farmers (crop growers, livestock keepers and fisher folk) of the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region met recently in Morogoro, Tanzania,  including delegations from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho South Africa, Madagascar and Seychelles.

RECALLING African governments’ initiatives to invest in agriculture as per the Maputo Declaration of 2003, the Dar es Salaam Declaration on agriculture and food security of 2004 and Sirte Declaration of 2009 on investing in agriculture for economic growth and food security:

 COMMENDING efforts to support agriculture through the AU/NEPAD- Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in various countries:

 AWARE that the CAADP Compact agreements signed by our countries are leading to increased resources in the agriculture sector and have the potential to increase the involvement of smallholder farmers in agriculture policy processes;

 NOTING that despite the commitment to increase national agriculture budgets to 10% by 2009 and to ensure annual growth of the sector by 6%, few countries in the ESA region have reached these goals.  Moreover in most countries where there is a significant increase of the budget, the growth of the sector is still less than 6%;

 CONCERNED that national agriculture development programmes mostly depend on external funding, hence the local agendas become heavily influenced by funders from China, USA, EU with emphasis on exports cash crops and dependence upon fossil-fuel based inputs;  

 FURTHER CONCERNED that the neo-colonial global agrochemical companies are capturing African agriculture, from seeds through to markets, by introducing genetically modified seeds (GMOs), pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This further threatens farmer independence on seed production that has already been eroded by hybrid seed and jeopardizes African agricultural biodiversity and food sovereignty;

 OBSERVING the negative trend in which many foreign multinational companies and foreign states influence our leaders to cede our land for production of export cash crops, biofuels and carbon credits which are not beneficial to the local populations;

ARE THEREFORE CALLING FOR

1.    East and Southern African governments to focus their support on small scale farmers because we are the major producers of food as well as industrial raw materials for our local industries and for export.  The promoted model of monoculture agriculture will not benefit smallholder producers; instead “agriculture investors” will mine the fertile soils which are still available in Africa and leave our environment degraded and polluted. Governments must regulate agribusiness instead of offering tax breaks for ecological plunder masquerading as economic development. 

 2.    We demand all governments to increase agriculture budgets to the committed 10% of their national budgets as per their Maputo Declaration of 2003. We feel that this it is a mockery that this level was supposed to be reached by 2009 but has been extended to 2015 following the Sirte Declaration.

 3.    We call for Regional Economic Groupings (RECs) in our region: COMESA, SADC, and EAC to sign and domesticate CAADP COMPACT as the ECOWAS has done. The RECs should set goals and have clear monitoring tools towards achieving the 10% budget allocation and 6% growth. EAC and SADC have never signed CAADP and some regional action plans.

 4.    CAADP programme implementation should involve small scale farmers, our opinion and observations should be taken into account to realize sustainable agro-ecological agriculture development which is meaningful to Africa. All these initiatives must widely inform and include opinions of the real practitioners of small scale crop, livestock and fish production.

 5.    We call on CAADP processes and finance to give special attention to gender and especially women who are the majority (70%) of food producers in our region. We need access to usage and ownership of land, together with appropriate technology

 6.    African governments must to increase public investment from within our national budgets to support small scale farmers who are the majority of food producers in our eastern and southern Africa region. Resources from foreign donor should support the implementation of the national programmes.

 7.    African governments and civil society should monitor the multinational agro-chemical corporations with their various strategies for penetrating their technologies into our production systems, for example by funding our research institutions various agriculture projects with the long term objective of imposing Bt cotton, cassava and genetically modified maize in our region.

 8.    Agriculture research funding should prioritise research into indigenous seed and breed varieties that can withstand climate variability and are prized for their taste and nutritional value.

 9.    Authorities must ensure that the agriculture budget is reaching and benefiting small scale farmers in the villages and not consumed in recurrent expenditure which benefits only government officials.

 10. We are convinced that agro-ecological agriculture is the answer to future   food security as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter has demonstrated in a series of reports since 2009. These reports show that agro-ecological farming model can double agricultural production in 10 years and reduce hunger in Africa whilst protecting and even enhancing the natural environment.

Produced at the General Summit of Small Scale farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa,  in Morogoro, Tanzania

 Moses Shaha, ESAFF Chairperson,

Tel. +254724281610

E-mail: esaff@esaff.org, Website: www.esaff.org

TABIO Mwanachama ESAFF ina tu kuchapishwa tamko hili:

Mashariki na Kusini mwa Afrika Shirikisho la wakulima wadogo

ESAFF Azimio juu ya hali ya sasa ya sera ya chakula na kilimo katika Mashariki na Kusini mwa Afrika

Sisi wakulima wadogo (mazao ya wakulima, wafugaji na wavuvi watu) wa kanda ya Mashariki na Kusini mwa Afrika (ESA) hivi karibuni walikutana katika Morogoro, Tanzania, ikiwa ni pamoja na wajumbe kutoka Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe , Lesotho Afrika Kusini, Madagascar na Seychelles.

ERINRAR mipango ya serikali za Afrika 'kuwekeza katika kilimo kama kwa Azimio la Maputo la mwaka 2003, Dar es Salaam Azimio juu ya kilimo na usalama wa chakula wa 2004 na Azimio la Sirte ya 2009 juu ya kuwekeza katika kilimo kwa ajili ya ukuaji wa uchumi na usalama wa chakula:

  COMMENDING jitihada za kusaidia kilimo kupitia AU/NEPAD- Comprehensive Mpango wa Maendeleo ya Kilimo Afrika (CAADP) katika nchi mbalimbali:

  CAADP inatambua kuwa Compact mikataba iliyosainiwa na nchi zetu ni kuongoza kwa kuongeza rasilimali katika sekta ya kilimo na kuwa na uwezo wa kuongeza ushiriki wa wakulima wadogo wadogo katika michakato ya sera ya kilimo;

  NOTERAR kuwa pamoja na dhamira ya kuongeza bajeti ya kilimo ya taifa kwa 10% ifikapo mwaka 2009 na kuhakikisha ukuaji wa sekta ya kila mwaka na 6%, nchi chache katika kanda ya ESA kufikia malengo haya. Aidha katika nchi nyingi ambapo kuna ongezeko kubwa la bajeti, ukuaji wa sekta bado ni chini ya 6%;

  Wasiwasi kuwa mipango ya maendeleo ya kilimo kitaifa zaidi hutegemea fedha za nje, hivyo kuwa ajenda ya ndani sana kusukumwa na wafadhili kutoka China, USA, EU pamoja na msisitizo juu ya mauzo ya mazao ya biashara na utegemezi juu ya pembejeo zinazotokana na mabaki ya mafuta ya msingi;

  ZAIDI wasiwasi kuwa ukoloni mamboleo kimataifa agrochemical makampuni ya ukamataji kilimo barani Afrika, kutokana na mbegu kwa njia ya masoko, kwa kuanzisha mbegu vinasaba (GMOs), dawa na mbolea za kemikali. Hii zaidi unatishia uhuru wakulima juu ya uzalishaji wa mbegu kwamba tayari kuharibiwa na mbegu chotara na inahatarisha wa kilimo barani Afrika na viumbe hai na uhuru wa chakula;

  Kuchunguza hali mbaya ambayo wengi wa kigeni katika makampuni ya kimataifa na mataifa ya nje ushawishi viongozi wetu kuachia nchi yetu kwa ajili ya uzalishaji wa mazao ya biashara ya kuuza nje, mafuta ya mimea na mikopo ya kaboni ambayo haina faida kwa wananchi wa eneo husika;

Hiyo ni wito kwa

1. Mashariki na Kusini mwa serikali za Afrika kulenga msaada wao kwa wakulima wadogo kwa sababu sisi ni kubwa wazalishaji wa chakula kama vile malighafi za viwanda kwa ajili ya viwanda yetu ya ndani na nje ya nchi. mfano kukuzwa ya kilimo monoculture haitakuwa na faida kwa wakulima wadogo wadogo, badala ya "kilimo wawekezaji" mapenzi ya mgodi wa maeneo ya rutuba ambayo bado inapatikana katika Afrika na kuondoka mazingira duni na machafu. Lazima serikali kudhibiti biashara ya kilimo badala ya sadaka ya mapumziko ya kodi kwa ajili ya nyara mazingira wanojisingizia kuwa maendeleo ya kiuchumi.

2. Tunataka wote serikali kuongeza bajeti ya kilimo kwa nia ya 10% ya bajeti ya taifa kama kwa Azimio la Maputo yao ya 2003. Tunahisi kwamba hii ni kejeli kwamba ngazi hii ilitakiwa kufikiwa ifikapo mwaka 2009 lakini imeendelea hadi 2015 kufuatia Azimio la Sirte.

3. Tunatoa wito kwa makundi ya kiuchumi katika kanda (RECs) katika mkoa wetu: COMESA, SADC, na Jumuiya ya Afrika Mashariki kwa ishara na fuga CAADP Compact kama ECOWAS amefanya. RECs wanapaswa kuweka malengo na kuwa na zana za ufuatiliaji wa wazi katika kufikia 10% ya bajeti na ukuaji wa 6%. EAC na SADC na kamwe saini CAADP na baadhi ya mipango ya kikanda action.

4. CAADP mpango wa utekelezaji wanapaswa kushirikisha wakulima wadogo wadogo, maoni yetu na uchunguzi zichukuliwe katika akaunti ya kutambua endelevu ya kilimo mazingira ya maendeleo ya kilimo ambayo ni ya maana kwa Afrika. Juhudi hizi zote lazima sana taarifa na ni pamoja na maoni ya watendaji halisi ya uzalishaji mdogo wa mazao, mifugo na samaki.

5. Tunatoa wito kwa mchakato wa CAADP na fedha kutoa kipaumbele maalum kwa jinsia na wanawake hasa walio wengi (70%) ya wazalishaji wa chakula katika mkoa wetu. Tunahitaji kupata matumizi na umiliki wa ardhi, pamoja na teknolojia sahihi

6.     Serikali za Afrika lazima kuongeza uwekezaji wa umma kutoka ndani ya bajeti yetu ya kitaifa...