Head of Agriculture and Food Security Division at ECOWAS Commission, Ernest Aubee has hailed the Performance of ECOWAS member countries in keeping to the process of the development of the Agriculture in the sub region.

Aubee stated this while reacting to the African Union’s, AU recent launch of the BR3 results saying there performance is very encouraging.

He said that the ECOWAS region was rated as the best performing region in terms of the BR which indicates that the various ECOWAS member states are responding to the agreements of the Malabo declaration.

“We need to continue to work hard to address the challenges outlined in the report, as a region where agriculture is our main occupation we must continue to commit more funding to develop Agriculture in the region” he said.

According to Aubee, “In terms of the countries, I think Rwanda and Djibouti did very well. These are for the country levels, the lessons are that Member States should invest 10% of national budgets into the agriculture sector, which will help to create 6% GDP growth and expedite food and nutrition security and propel economic growth and development”.

Just to let you know, The BR is the primary mutual accountability mechanism that the African Union and its Member States use to track the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development programme (CAADP) borne from the Malabo Declaration and the t Biennial Review Report is a fundamental instrument that shows outcomes of different agricultural efforts and interventions on the continent, to enable countries track, measure and report progress achieved against agreed result areas.

 In the 3rd BR cycle, 51 countries (out of 55) reported performance across 46 indicators. The report is particularly significant as it is being released after two of the most difficult years for African agriculture: since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged health systems, depressed agricultural production, and disrupted market systems. Smallholder producers and SMEs, most of them run by women and youth, bore the brunt of COVID19.

Although Nigeria and 50 other African countries are not on track meeting up the criteria set up in line with the attainment of the CAADP Agenda, they have however made significant progress in line with the attainment of the program.