By Isatou Jawara
The Head of Agricultural Division at the ECOWAS Commission has recommended that ECOWAS member states mainstream Organic Ecological Agriculture (EOA) into national development policies for food and nutritional security. He observed that member states have limited investments at country levels and are not adhering to funding commitments of Maputo and Malabo Declarations for the agricultural sector.
Mr Ernest Aubee made these remarks at a recently concluded regional meeting on organic agriculture and agroecology in West Africa with the agenda on transformation of ecological organic agriculture in West Africa.
He pointed out that there is huge unexplored land for organic agriculture in West Africa for development, and that since 2015 organic agricultural land has increased by 119,OOOha and organic farming globally grew from $150.63 billion in 2021 to 169.04 billion in 2022 signifying an increase for local and global demands for healthy food products.
“Member states depend on foreign funding with no room for sustainability of organic agriculture as it faces a stiff competition from conventional agriculture which is heavily input-dependent and is a sector that is highly regulated by standards. The absence of standards reduces the level of competitiveness of African products in the domestic and international markets. Standard is for quality control and some member states suffer from poor funding to institutional ineffectiveness,” Mr Aubee highlighted the challenges.
He went on to explain that EOA requires the involvement of both the public and private sector, adding that government and private sector should be partners in development.
The Head of Agric Division stressed the need for capacity building for stakeholders on the level of EOA value chain and creation of markets at all levels and taking advantage of international and regional trade, especially the new opportunities provided by the AfCFTA.
He however admitted that practically it will not be possible to eradicate conventional agricultural practices in a rush. “It is a well-established farming practice with huge private sector interest,” he pointed out.
Mr Aubee finally called joint efforts through transitional arrangement to promote ecological organic agriculture in a coordinated and sustainable manner.
