Lilongwe, Malawi 26 October 2010- The African experts of Agriculture gathered today, 26 October 2010, in Lilongwe, Malawi to discuss the Agricultural sector development in Africa.

Organized by the African Union Commission (AUC) jointly with the New Partnership for African Development- Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency), under the theme "Delivering on Africa's Agriculture Development Agenda", participants and delegates to the Conference of African Ministers of Agriculture (CAMA) were drawn from, the AUC, the NEPAD Agency, UN agencies, development partners, farmers organisations, civil society, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and development partners.

The CAMA is organised within the framework of reviewing progress on implementation of continental agriculture development initiatives especially the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and to agree on a short and medium-term action-oriented strategy towards realising the vision of a food secure Africa within five years.

During the opening session of the experts meeting, Dr. Abebe Haile-Gabriel, the Acting Director in the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture at the AUC, addressed the vision of H.E Prof. Bingu Wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi and Chairman of the African Union, which aims to enable Africa to be food secured within five years.

It is in this regard that "a food and nutrition secure Africa requires strengthening of capacities of African agriculture and food systems to adapt climate change, via improved technology generation and adoption, more and better irrigation and water control mechanisms, better markets, greater preparedness for extreme weather events, and productive and protective safety nets," Dr. Abebe stressed.

Ho also emphasised the importance of CAADP in achieving Africa's food security agenda. He stated that at the international level and in several high level fora, including the recent G8/G20 meetings and at the UN General Assembly gatherings, CAADP was singled out as a home-grown framework that needed recognition and support.

On his part, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security for the Government of Malawi,

Prof. Peter N. Mwanza underscored some of the challenges facing the agricultural development in Africa. "In many African countries, the agricultural sector has stagnated and has not achieved its potential. The slow pace of rural infrastructure development and its low maintenance in Africa has hampered market connectivity and free movement of agriculture products," he stated.

He also urged the experts to accelerate the implementation of decisions, declarations and strategies for the development of the African continent and betterment of the lives of African people.

"Development partners fully appreciated the need to accelerate and improve the quality of investments in agriculture, to boost economic growth and to contribute to the realisation of first the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by 50% by the year 2015", said Dr. Vincent O'Neill, Chair, Donor Committee on Agriculture and Food Security, Malawi.

Dr. O'Neill assured the delegates that the pledges made by development partners to support the African Governments in the efforts of ensuring the realisation of President Mutharika's vision, of 'Within five years Africa must feed itself and no child should die of hunger', "we affirm our commitment to the CAADP, as an Africa owned and led development framework, for increasing investment in agriculture", he added.

The Experts' session will deliberate on progress on implementation of CAADP and previous relevant decisions, draft policy framework for pastoralism in Africa, and strategies for improving rural livelihoods in semi-Arid Zones of Africa.

The ministerial session will start on Thursday, 28 October 2010 to consider the outcomes of the technical meeting.