26/05/2025
SADC Ministers Discuss Food Security Amid Rising Prices
John Cassim
A virtual joint meeting of SADC senior officials and Ministers responsible for agriculture and food security, as well as fisheries and aquaculture, commenced today. This follows closely after the week-long SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) conference and summit held in Harare.
Professor Obert Jiri, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development, is chairing the SADC senior officials' meeting. The discussions are focused on issues concerning regional food security.
The effects of climate change, such as floods, the uneven distribution of rainfall in the 2024/2025 season, livestock disease outbreaks, and a spike in food prices, are central to the discussions.
"The meeting of senior officials kicked off this morning with us looking at various issues, including the food situation in SADC and also the agri-value chain situation in SADC.
We are also looking at the water situation and the other value chains such as rice and potatoes, soybean, which we are looking at as SADC. So, the meeting really is looking at those submissions which affect our food situation in SADC in the member states. We will make recommendations to the minister's meeting, which will happen on Friday," Professor Jiri said.
He added, "So, the geopolitical conflicts which happened last year and the previous years obviously are affecting food prices. And of course, the trade measures that are being taken now, particularly from the US, are also impactful.
Zimbabwe is affected as much as other regional countries are also affected. So, those are the issues that we are also looking at, the impact of those and how we are responding to them as SADC and also as Zimbabwe."
As the meeting began, it was noted that an estimated 68 million people in eleven Member States, which submitted data on their food insecurity status, faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2024–2025. This represents a 24.5 percent increase in these eleven countries compared to the 2023/24 data, and accounts for 17.1 percent of the region’s total population.
Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are the countries that provided their status reports ahead of this week’s meeting.
At the national level, the most significant year-on-year increases in acute food insecurity were observed in countries most severely affected by drought, including Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Malawi reported that the drought emergencies affected 5.7 million people, which is 29% of their total population.
The meeting also referenced the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index, which indicated a decrease in maize prices by January 2025. However, these prices remained 24% above pre-pandemic levels.
“Maize prices surged to a 15-month peak in January, primarily due to tight supplies and production risks, particularly in Southern Africa, where record-high maize prices are driven by drought.
Wheat prices also rose slightly due to reduced harvests. Regional price increases are exacerbated by high import costs, weak domestic harvests, and currency depreciation, especially in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe,” the draft annotated agenda stated.
The draft, which will be presented to the Ministers at the end of the week, also highlighted that rainfall in the 2024-2025 season varied considerably across the Region. Eastern Madagascar experienced its driest October–December period on record.
Conversely, Botswana, northern South Africa, and southern Zimbabwe saw record rainfall. Southern Angola, Namibia, western South Africa, and parts of Lesotho and Mozambique experienced below-average rainfall.
“January–February 2025 rains improved conditions for crops and pastures in many countries, notably in eastern Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. However, localized flooding and waterlogging in February 2025 affected yields. Pest outbreaks, including armyworms, locusts, and livestock diseases, posed ongoing threats throughout the season,” the draft noted.
Meanwhile, this virtual meeting is a follow-up to another virtual meeting held by the outgoing chair, Angola last year. Angola directed the SADC Secretariat to support member states in formulating the Post-Malabo Agenda to guide the region for the next decade.
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), officially launched in 2003 through the Maputo Declaration, called for African governments to allocate at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture and to achieve 6% annual growth in agricultural productivity.
The Malabo Declaration of 2014 expanded on CAADP by introducing new goals such as eradicating hunger, tripling intra-African trade, and emphasizing private-sector investment and public-private partnerships.
