By Alfred Wasike
“I AM enormously distressed that 200 million Africans remain hungry and malnutritioned. Africans must speak out with one loud voice against the protectionism in Europe, USA and Japan that restricts free entry of our food products into those large and lucrative markets”
President Yoweri Museveni’s concern is in a statement posted on the Washington D.C-based International Food Policy Research Institute website in preparation for the three-day international conference in Kampala from April 1-3, 2004.
Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, John Kufuor of Ghana and Premier Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia are some of the guests from 50 countries scheduled to attend the summit.
The summit theme is “Assuring Food and Nutrition Security in Africa by 2020: Prioritising Actions, Strengthening Actors and Facilitating Partnerships”.
Agriculture minister Kisamba Mugerwa told the weekly Government press briefing moderated by information minister, James Nsaba Buturo, that over 500 participants would attend.
Museveni said, “While Africa’s return to the international agenda is promising, we the Africans are the ones who must act to meet our food and nutrition needs in a sustainable way.”
“At this value-added conference, Africans from across the continent and all walks of life will gather to focus on how to bring about and accelerate the necessary actions. The only way to stimulate and sustain measures to ensure food security, is to make access to markets possible,” he advised.
“Agricultural production is only for three purposes: Subsistence, commercial or a hobby. Food production for subsistence is not sustainable because you can’t feed the stomach when you have no clothes, shelter and no income pay for medical bills,” he said.
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