BY SIFISO NHLABATSI
EZULWINI- His Majesty King Mswati III has urged African countries to maximise the crops for which they are best suited and support one another where individual countries demonstrate particular agricultural strengths.
The King made the call on Tuesday night during the dinner at Ezulwini Palazzo, where he officially opened the inaugural Africa Seed Summit.
He said African countries needed to assess their agricultural capabilities and focus production according to the strengths of individual regions and countries.
“Each nation must maximize the crops for which it is best suited and where one country shows particular strength, the other member states must support it, because all of us are Africans,” said the King.
He said effective production could enable Africa to produce sufficient food at regional level and increase storage capacity for later use.
The King said Africa needed to ensure a reliable and long-lasting food supply by improving its ability to produce food across the continent.
He said this required countries to consider their different landscapes, noting that some areas were deserts, grasslands and forests.
According to the King, countries should conduct country-by-country analysis to evaluate their agricultural productivity and establish their strongest areas through soil testing.
He said soil testing would help determine what works best in different countries and guide agricultural production.
The King also pointed to the continent’s water resources as an important component of efforts to strengthen food production.
He said Africa could consider building dams to create sufficient water resources while also making use of its large rivers and lakes, including Lake Malawi, the Nile River and the Congo River.
He said these resources could be used for irrigation to establish a well-coordinated system that would help ensure that Africa had enough water to produce food.
The King said regional production would also complement Africa’s trade initiatives, particularly the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which promotes trade among African countries.
He said stronger transportation systems, including air, shipping and rail cargo, would also be required to improve connectivity to markets.
The King said African countries needed to engage multilateral organisations and financial institutions to support bankable projects.
He said the African Union should support such programmes by creating strong systems to monitor loan implementation and ensure countries remained up to date with debt repayments.
He said the ultimate goal was to see a successful and food-secure Africa.
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