SADC sounds alarm over looming region-wide hunger

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has called for urgent and coordinated regional action to strengthen food security, climate resilience and agricultural systems.

This comes amid growing threats posed by global supply chain disruptions, climate change and livestock diseases.

SADC deputy executive secretary for regional integration Angèle N’Tumba made the call while addressing the joint meeting of SADC ministers responsible for agriculture, food security, fisheries and aquaculture at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, on Friday.

She warned that worsening climate shocks and geopolitical conflicts were placing millions of people at risk of hunger and economic hardship.

N’tumba said disruptions in global supply chains and extreme weather patterns were threatening food and energy security across the region.

She said the conflict in the Middle East had disrupted the movement of key agricultural inputs and petroleum products through the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in rising food and fuel prices and increasing pressure on regional economies.

“Conflict in the Middle East has resulted in the restriction of movement of agricultural inputs such as nitrogen, urea, ammonia fertilisers and petroleum products, which are all key inputs to agriculture,” she said.

N’Tumba said while some SADC member states had recorded bumper harvests, others were battling crop losses, damaged infrastructure and livestock deaths caused by excessive rainfall and climate-related disasters.

She warned that climate experts were predicting a 77% likelihood of a moderate to very strong El Niño event developing towards the end of this year and into early 2027, which could trigger below-average rainfall and severe harvest failures across central and southern parts of the region.

“We must start preparing now for such a possibility,” she advised.

N’Tumba said agriculture remained the backbone of the SADC region, sustaining more than 70% of the population through food production, trade and related value chains.

‘WORK TOGETHER’

She stressed the need for member states to strengthen regional cooperation in tackling livestock diseases, particularly foot and mouth disease, which continues to affect trade, livelihoods and food security.

N’tumba also called on member states to invest more in fisheries and aquaculture to address food and nutrition security challenges.

“I would like to urge member states to invest in aquaculture, cold chain systems, value addition and climate-resilient production systems to close the fish supply gap and improve livelihoods, particularly for women and youth,” she said.

Speaking at the same occasion, South African agriculture minister John Steenhuisen, who is also the chairperson of the joint committee, said despite improvements in cereal production, the region still faced serious food insecurity challenges.

“An estimated 58 million people across SADC member states still face acute food insecurity due to issues around access and affordability. This reality demands urgency from all of us,” he said.

He said global shocks, including climate-related disasters, rising fertiliser prices, disease outbreaks and supply chain disruptions, were negatively affecting agriculture and food systems in southern Africa.

Steenhuisen called on SADC countries to urgently harmonise fertiliser regulations and fast-track a proposed agreement on the harmonisation of fertiliser regulatory frameworks to reduce production costs and improve regional trade.

“We cannot continue entering each planting season fragmented by unharmonised standards, duplicative registration systems and regulatory bottlenecks that unnecessarily increase costs for farmers and slow regional trade,” he said.

Zimbabwe’s minister of agriculture, mechanisation and water resources development, Anxious Masuka, echoed similar concerns, urging SADC member states to strengthen climate resilience and develop robust food security systems ahead of the anticipated El Niño-induced drought conditions.

“The development of a super El Niño in the 2026/27 season, as predicted by early climate models, should spur us to develop appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures,” he said.

‘DRIER FUTURE’

Masuka warned that Zimbabwe and other southern African countries were projected to become drier in the coming decades due to climate change, making it critical for governments to climate-proof agriculture.

“The imperative to climate-proof our agriculture cannot be over-emphasised,” he said.

He said the region continued to face food and nutrition security challenges, including undernourishment, stunting, wasting and disease-related mortalities, while transboundary crop and livestock diseases remained a major threat requiring coordinated regional responses.

Masuka also highlighted the impact of geopolitical conflicts on agriculture, saying disruptions in fertiliser and energy supplies caused by the Middle East conflict underscored the need for resilient agriculture and food systems.

“This and other climate, pandemic, conflict and macro-economic shocks necessitate the development of resilient agriculture and food systems,” he said

– Nampa

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