VICTORIA FALLS, May 29 (NewsDay Live) — Southern African countries must urgently harmonise fertiliser regulations and strengthen regional disease-control measures to tackle food insecurity, livestock outbreaks and supply-chain disruptions, South Africa’s Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has said.
Addressing a SADC ministerial meeting in Victoria Falls on Thursday, Steenhuisen said about 58 million people across the region remain food insecure despite improved cereal harvests following last season’s drought.
“Food security, agricultural production, animal health, fisheries and rural livelihoods are not abstract policy discussions,” he said. “They determine whether families can afford food and whether farmers can remain productive.”
Steenhuisen urged member states to accelerate adoption of a regional fertiliser regulatory framework, saying fragmented systems, duplicate registration requirements and bureaucratic delays were driving up costs and undermining trade.
Global shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and supply-chain disruptions, had exposed Southern Africa’s vulnerability to fertiliser shortages, he said.
“We cannot continue entering each planting season fragmented by unharmonised standards.”
Steenhuisen also raised concern over Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), which has affected 11 SADC member states, threatening livestock production, rural livelihoods and regional trade.
“South Africa has learnt through painful experience that FMD cannot be managed through fragmented national responses alone,” he said.
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He welcomed efforts to establish a regional FMD coordination framework covering surveillance, livestock movement controls, traceability systems and vaccination programmes, and backed proposals for a regional vaccine bank.
Steenhuisen called for a stronger One Health approach linking animal, human and environmental health, and urged governments to improve biosecurity coordination across borders.
He also pressed for faster implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), with a focus on irrigation, intra-African trade, access to finance and integrating smallholder farmers into value chains.
“Food security cannot be achieved in isolation,” he said.
Zimbabwe, represented by Agriculture Minister Anxious Jongwe Masuka, hosted the meeting as SADC countries seek to strengthen cooperation on food systems, climate resilience and animal disease control.
“We have an opportunity not only to respond to immediate crises, but to strengthen the long-term resilience and competitiveness of agriculture in Southern Africa,” Steenhuisen said.
