Secretary General of the East African Community Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera
The seven-man EAFF delegation was in Arusha to discuss, broadly, avenues of enhancing collaboration with the EAC Secretariat. Specifically, the farmers’ representatives and the Secretary General discussed the EAC food security and climate change policy action plans, enhancing trade in agricultural commodities and involving farmers in integration processes, among others.
The EAFF President, Mr Philip Kiriro, noted that although the Federation’s has membership in countries that do not belong to the EAC, its foundation was in the Community, and that it aims to build a “cohesive farming community in East Africa”.
“We want to communicate the benefits of integration to farmers,” Mr. Kiriro pledged, adding that regional integration presents “huge opportunities” and that EAFF was keen to advocate pro-farmer policies at the regional level.
The views of the EAFF president were echoed by the Chief Executive Officer of the farmer’s body Mr. Stephen Muchiri who also highlighted the need to “catalyze” agriculture, by providing “incentives that come from trade”
The Secretary General welcomed EAFF’s interest in the EAC and informed the farmers’ representatives that implementation of the food security action plan was ongoing. He assured the delegation of the bloc’s readiness to work with them as key players in the region’s economy.
“Agriculture is the mainstay of our economies [so] your role is important to us,” Amb. Sezibera remarked.
“Our integration process must make sense to the farmers if we are to cause socio-economic transformation,” the Secretary General went on.
Amb. Sezibera invited the farmers’ body to work with the EAC to implement one of the major components of the EAC Industrialization Policy and Strategy—concerning agro-processing. The Policy and Strategy were adopted last November by the Summit of Heads of State.
He also observed that the region needed to modernise the trade in commodities in order for its farmers to reap the benefits of favorable prices on international markets.
“The sense I have is that our farmers are not fully benefiting from prices on the international markets,” the Secretary General noted, offering that this problem could be addressed by establishing a regional commodities exchange. He informed the EAFF team that work in that area was ongoing.
“If we get commodities exchanges to work it can boost our farmers’ welfare,” Amb. Sezibera asserted.
He challenged the famers’ body to work with other stakeholders to design innovative solutions to address the limited access to insurance for farmers, which he identified as a major obstacle.
EAFF is a non-political, non-profit apex organization of all farmers in eastern Africa. It is a regional network of national farmer organizations, national co-operatives, national commodity associations and women/youth organizations involved in agriculture.
EAFF has 20 members in 10 countries namely: Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Uganda, DRC and Djibouti. The Federation has an MoU with and observer status in the EAC.
