By Abdi Dubat
The economies and livelihoods of citizens in the East Africa region are predominantly dependent on agriculture. Cooperation in agriculture and food security is one of the priorities that feature prominently in the EAC integration process.
Chapter 18, Articles 105-110 of the EAC Treaty, sets out the overall objectives of the agriculture sector as the achievement of food security and rational agricultural production with a view of promoting complementarity and specialization and sustainability of national agricultural programs, in order to ensure among other things, food sufficiency within the EAC region.
The agricultural sector accounts for 25-40 percent of EAC Partner States (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and Republic of South Sudan) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is the leading employer of over 80 percent of the population in the region.
More than 70 percent of the industries in the EAC states are agro-based and depend on agriculture as the main source of raw materials. Agricultural commodities constitute about 65 percent of the volume of intra-regional trade in the EAC.
The sector is dominated by smallholder farmers who practice mixed farming, with crop production mainly under rain fed agriculture. The major food crops across the EAC region include potatoes, maize, rice, bananas, cassava, sorghum, millet and pulses.
Among the cash crops, tea, cotton, coffee, sisal and horticultural products are the major, but also oil crops, tobacco, cashew nuts produced in some partner states.
The livestock sub-sector consists of cattle, sheep, goats, and camels, mainly for meat and milk production; pigs and poultry for white meat and eggs respectively; hides and skins for export and industrial processing.
On the other hand, fisheries products include freshwater fish from ponds, rivers, dams and lakes and those from marine ecosystems.
Kenya’s main exports to the region are agricultural goods (58 percent) followed by manufactured goods (32 percent) while its imports are mainly manufactured goods (63 percent) and almost equal shares of agricultural goods, fuels and mining products.
By 2021, the largest export market for Kenyan products within Africa was 30 percent to Uganda, 15 percent to Tanzania, 10 percent to Rwanda, 8 percent to the DRC and 7 percent to Egypt.
The most important agricultural products exported to the countries are tea, coffee, horticultural products, animal and vegetable oils. In terms of imports, the leading countries are Tanzania (24 percent), Egypt (21 percent), South Africa (19 percent) and Uganda (15 percent).
The most important products imported are cereals, sugars, wood, mineral fuels and paper.
EAC Trade and Investment Report 2022 reported that Kenya’s trade with EAC partner states increased by 8.8 percent from US$ 1.65 billion in 2021 to US$ 1.79 billion which was the highest value compared to trade values between Kenya and the other regional blocs.
Uganda and Tanzania are the main exporters to Kenya within the EAC region. Kenya imports unmanufactured tobacco, cane or beet sugar, leguminous vegetables, maize/corn, fowls and milk cream, from Uganda while the main agricultural product from Tanzania is maize.
Kenya’s main exports to the EAC region include construction materials (cement, iron and steel, paints and vanishes, paperboard), petroleum products, beer, salt, pharmaceutical products, edible oils and detergents.
The constraints facing Kenyan agricultural export trade are also the common barriers in all the EAC partner states.
Kenya’s trade with EAC countries has been facilitated by various regional agreements, such as the East African Community Customs Union and the Common Market Protocol.
These agreements aim to promote free trade and economic integration among member states. Consequently, Kenya has enjoyed certain benefits in terms of reduced trade barriers, harmonized customs procedures, and increased market access.
The treaty on establishment of EAC chapter 18 article 105 section 2(a) requires the state partners to cooperate in harmonization of policies and strategies in order to achieve food security and agricultural production. In section 2(g) the Treaty advocates for the Partner States to co-operate in the marketing of food and the co-ordination of the export and import of agricultural commodities.
The protocol on common market establishment too, proposes the harmonization of policies as one of the approaches of improving and easing trade in agricultural materials within and outside the EAC region. These documents have been ratified by all the partner states and hence establishing EAC market, which the Kenyan traders should take advantage of.
A number of initiatives to promote intra-EAC trading have been developed and promotion for adoption by the partner states is continuing. One of the initiatives is the directive to have harmonized regulations in licensing and handling of farm inputs across the EAC member states.
This initiative aims at easing the cost of production and also open new markets for stakeholders engaged in trading with inputs including the pesticides and fertilizers.
The directive by EAC Council of Ministers to harmonize food (plants and animal) handling measures and implement the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) protocol and the proposed bill, will not only improve trading within EAC but even outside EAC region.
The SPS protocol guidelines promote trading on safe and quality agricultural food materials.
The EAC Strategy on Competitive African Rice Initiative seeks to enhance both production and marketing of rice in the EAC region. With local production of rice, there will be a reduction in importation of the product hence saving the country the highly desired foreign exchange.
In livestock production, various initiatives including prevention and control of transboundary animal Diseases (TADs) and zoonotic diseases are being championed in the EAC partner states. These animal diseases are the major non-tariff barriers (NTB) to intra and extra EAC trading and adversely impact the animal health, public health, wildlife conservation.
It is important to implement/domesticate and sustain efforts on harmonization of national SPS measures and procedures for recognition of standard quality marks for products originating within tripartite member states (EAC, COMESA and SADC).
Awareness and knowledge building programmes targeting Kenyan traders/businesses and public sector trade facilitation institutions focusing on requirements for exports to targeted EAC export markets should also be scaled up.
One of the big threats towards achieving food security is climate variability and change. This is a serious global concern that is increasingly negatively impacting the EACs regions ecosystems, the natural resources productivity, the livelihood of the people and the development efforts.
Climate change has resulted in weather conditions which either destroy or do not support the agricultural activities. These include extended droughts with great impact on livestock, heavy precipitations leading to flooding or very low unreliable rainfall which cannot support productive farming among other devastating occurrences.
The other important common constraints to achieving food and nutrition security include overdependence on rainfed agriculture, high post-harvest losses (averaging 30-40 percent), low adoption of high-yielding and pest-resistant/tolerant varieties/breeds; low quality of produce; poor access to inputs, prevalence of pests and diseases and poor infrastructure.
All these factors have constrained availability, accessibility and utilization of food.
In recognition of the complexity of food security, EAC partner states have engaged in varied interventions.
Over the years the Partner States have worked on laying down a strong foundation aligned to the key drivers of agricultural transformation and also developed key instruments for spearheading regional food security agenda.
These include Vision 2050 which contains a pillar on Agriculture, the 6th EAC Development Strategy, EAC Agricultural and Rural Development Policy (EAC-ARDP) and the multi-year, multi-sectoral EAC Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy (EAC-ARDS) which provides the roadmap for Partner States and other stakeholders in defining interventions that will lead to achievement of food security in the region.
The EAC Food and Nutrition Strategy and Action Plan (2018-2022) is the most current instrument for strengthening regional coordination of the sector. It aims at enhancing food and nutrition security and safety, and states interventions to promote agricultural value chains.
The Partner States are also working towards setting up a Regional Online Animal Resources Information System (ARIS) and Regional Food Balance Sheet (RFBS). These online platforms seek to facilitate information exchange and support decision-making. They will enhance food security in the EAC region through provision of information on key aspects such as production in the various states, availability and prices.
The writer is the Principal Secretary for State Department for East African Community
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