PrintLims Sub Committees LTC Workshops Workshop on Regional Agricultural policy, Livestock sector
With the support of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO, Harare Sub-Regional Office), and financial support of the French Foreign Ministry, the processes in formulating the SADC Regional agricultural policy framework (RAPF) began in earnest in March 2008. The development of the Regional Agricultural Policy Framework will be conducted through a participatory consultative process involving relevant stakeholders in all Member States.
In response to this call to participate in the development processes of the RAPF, the SADC FANR Livestock Unit, through the PRINT Livestock Project, organised a workshop held in November 2008 for the specific purposes of:
In implementing its activities, the PRINT Livestock Project has worked closely with the four sub-committees of the SADC Livestock Technical Committee (LTC). The four Sub Committees are:
The PRINT Livestock Project and the Sub Committees report to the LTC comprising Directors of Veterinary and Livestock Services of Member States on issues affecting livestock in the SADC region. Thus, the workshop was organised as a combined Sub-Committees’ Workshop for the specific task, as mentioned earlier, of addressing livestock policy issues in contribution to the formulation processes of the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy Framework currently underway.
With the above definitions in mind, it is clear that the RAPF is an attempt at moving towards the complete harmonisation of national policies with the view to providing opportunities to Member States to capitalise on the trade benefits of improved resource allocation and greater competition and to permit a wider range of projects to be implemented under the RISDP. To help guide the contributions by the livestock sector into the processes of the development of the RAPF, the following workshop objectives were outlined.
– Increased and improved productivity;
– Increased regional value adding;
– Increased intra- and inter-regional trade;
– Resource allocation allowing for comparative advantage oriented production;
– Elimination of trans-boundary pests and diseases;
– Increased and improved livestock information management and dissemination systems;
– Increased and improved livestock infrastructure, rangelands and public services;
– Grain production is key for animal production bringing forward the challenge of competing demands for human consumption as opposed to animal feeds from grains and now Biofuels.
– Efforts directed towards improved animal feeds and livestock feeding systems.
– Public / private partnerships synergies for livestock development
Before the participants could fully engage themselves in addressing these issues, it was necessary that the private sector participants outline their perspectives and perceptions of key issues affecting the livestock sector. A number of presenters made presentations from the view point of the private sector. These are detailed in the main report.
The report (in pdf format) is available here:FINAL_PRINT_Workshop_Report_10_Nov_08Rev1.pdf
The general principles of the RAPF can be read here:
Definitions
In a bid to provide clarity for workshop participants on some of the terms generally used in policy development, the Facilitator provided the following simplified definitions on four commonly used terms, policy, convergence, harmonisation and common agricultural policy.
The difference between the As-Is situation and the To-Be position are the gaps that policy desires to close. The To-be is the main objective of the policy and strategies, plans, budgets, monitoring and evaluation are the tools to be employed in moving from the As-Is situation to the To-Be desired state. All this encapsulates what the word policy means or stands for.
The Outcomes of Thematic Group Discussions
Deriving from the four sub-committees of the Livestock Technical Committee, four themes were developed to assist focus discussions on issues of policy contribution towards the Regional Agricultural Policy Framework. These themes were:
The major outputs for this workshop were designed to originate from group discussions. The following sections outline the summaries of these group discussions and therefore their recommendations towards policy formulation of the RAPF.
Animal Production
The group on animal production outlined the following as being the major objective in animal production: "Regional self sufficiency in animal and animal products through increased national production and the promotion of intra-regional trade in livestock, livestock products and inputs. "
The group identified what they considered key issues and challenges. These include:
Animal Health
The group identified the following key policy issues / mechanisms, which when fully addressed, would see the SADC region attain the above objective:
In summary, the group made the following recommendations on issues of policy and possible interventions desirable for inclusion in the Regional Agricultural Policy formulation.
Livestock Rangelands and Public Services
The fourth theme on livestock rangelands and public services considered issues of infrastructure and public services in the livestock sector. The group recommended that the main objective, from the perspective of rangelands and public services, be the "Effective utilisation of natural resources for sustainable livestock development".
The group noted that for improved animal production, it is necessary to provide the following types of feed resources:
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