COMESA Member States are cognizant of the critical role that agriculture plays in their national economies. Agriculture is considered to be the engine for economic development in the COMESA region. The sector accounts for more than 32 per cent of COMESA's gross domestic product (GDP), provides a livelihood to about 80 per cent of the region's labour force, accounts for about 65 per cent of foreign exchange earnings and contributes more than 50 per cent of raw materials to the industrial sector.

In order to raise the competitiveness of the COMESA region's agricultural sector, the COMESA secretariat has in place a number of initiatives at different stages of implementation. These initiatives are in line with the COMESA agricultural strategy which stresses the importance of cooperation and co-ordination of regional agricultural policies, food security responses, product marketing, research and development, plant and animal disease and pest control, training, irrigation development, and exploitation of marine and forestry resources. The strategy recognizes the need for a holistic approach that deals with key elements of agricultural development: markets, inputs, institutions and infrastructure.

The objectives of the COMESA Treaty and the COMESA Agricultural Policy (CAP) are in line with the broader Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) under the African Union (AU). The CAADP has been endorsed by African Heads of State and Governments as a framework for the restoration of agricultural growth, food security and rural development in Africa within an integrated and coordinated approach. CAADP defines four Pillars for improving Africa's agriculture:

1. Extending the area under sustainable land management and reliable water control systems;
2. Improving rural infrastructure and trade related capacities for market access;
3. Increasing food supply, reducing hunger and improving responses to food emergency crises; and
4. Improving agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption.

In addition, there are two crosscutting themes:

Academic and professional training, and support to farmers' associations;

Information and knowledge systems.

The overall African Union vision for agriculture is that the Continent by the year 2015 should:

• Improve the productivity of agriculture to attain an average annual production growth rate of 6%, with particular attention to small-scale farmers, especially women;
• Have dynamic agricultural markets within countries and between regions;
• Have integrated farmers into the market economy and have improved access to markets to become a net exporter of agricultural products taking into account Africa's comparative and competitive advantage;
• Achieved a more equitable distribution of wealth as a result of rising real incomes and relative wealth for rural populations through more equitable access to land, physical and financial resources, and the knowledge, information and technology for sustainable development;
• Be a strategic player in agricultural science and technology development to meet growing needs and demands of African agricultural development;
• Practice environmentally sound production methods and have a culture of sustainable management of the natural resource base through increased knowledge, information and technology application.

COMESA agricultural programmes, in line with the overall African vision for the sector, are tools for attaining two major objectives: sustainable regional food security and enhanced regional integration. COMESA has endorsed the principle of moving from a national to a regional approach in dealing with regional food security issues based on two major strategies. The first is to open up the region to freer flow of agricultural trade by removing all barriers to such trade to ensure that as needed, commodities move from surplus to deficit areas in the region driven primarily by demand and market forces. This policy shift is enshrined in the Declaration of the Second Meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture, made in Nairobi, Kenya on 15-16 October on, “Expanding Opportunities for Agricultural Production, Enhanced Regional Food Security, Increased Regional Trade and Expanded Agro-exports through Research, Value Addition and Trade Facilitation”.

The other strategic approach is to put in place policies, systems, regulations and procedures which are harmonized across the region so as to create a conducive, transparent and facilitative environment for conducting regional agricultural trade with forward and backward linkages across the region from the farmer to the market. Further, the COMESA agricultural approach aims to position the region as a reliable supplier of primary and processed agricultural goods to global markets and whose producers effectively and competitively respond to opportunities that arise in all external markets.

The COMESA Secretariat's on-going agricultural sector programs aimed at attaining sustainable food security are as follows:

• Agricultural Market Promotion and Regional Integration Project (supported by the AfDB)
• Irrigation Development in the COMESA Region (with the assistance of the Indian Government)
• Regional Food Security/Food Reserve Initiative among member states
  The Food Security Policy and Vulnerability Reduction Program (to be supported by the 9th EDF)
• Coordinated Agricultural Research and Technology Interventions (supported by USAID)
  A Regional Approach Towards Biotechnology (supported by USAID)
• The Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) in collaboration with the AU
• Livestock Sector Development in collaboration with the AU and USAID
• Fisheries Sector Development in partnership with the Common Fund for Commodities
• Implementation of NEPAD's Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) in the Eastern and Central African (ECA) region
• Crop Crisis Control (C3) Project with the support of USAID
• The Action Plan for the Environment among member states
• Interventions to mitigate impacts of HIV/AIDS among smallholder farmers in the ESA region

Closely linked to its food security programs, the Secretariat's agricultural marketing and regional integration activities are listed below:

• The Food and Agricultural Marketing Information System (FAMIS), a component of the AMPRIP program supported by AfDB.
• The Regional Agricultural Trade Expansion Support (RATES) project supported by USAID.
• The AGOA Linkages (ALINK) in COMESA supported by USAID.
• The Commodity Exchange Initiative
• The WTO and EU/EPA market access initiatives aimed at ensuring that the ESA region gets a fair deal in global agricultural trade arrangements.

A detailed description of the above programs and initiatives is available at the COMESA Secretariat, Division of Invest Promotion and Private Sector Development (IPPSD)