SADC Ministers Meet in Zimbabwe to Coordinate on Food Security and Agriculture Policy

The Southern African Development Community called for urgent regional action to strengthen food security, climate resilience and agricultural systems at a joint meeting of ministers responsible for agriculture, food security, fisheries and aquaculture held Friday at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

SADC deputy executive secretary for regional integration Angèle N'Tumba told the gathering that worsening climate shocks and geopolitical conflicts were placing millions of people at risk of hunger and economic hardship. She said disruptions in global supply chains and extreme weather patterns were threatening food and energy security across the region.

N'Tumba noted that the conflict in the Middle East had disrupted the movement of key agricultural inputs and petroleum products through the Strait of Hormuz. "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.

She added that some member states recorded bumper harvests while others faced crop losses, damaged infrastructure and livestock deaths caused by excessive rainfall and climate-related disasters.

Climate experts predict a 77% likelihood of a moderate to very strong El Niño event developing towards the end of 2026 and into early 2027, N'Tumba said. Agriculture sustains more than 70% of the SADC region's population through food production, trade and related value chains, she said.

N'Tumba urged member states to strengthen regional cooperation in tackling livestock diseases, particularly foot and mouth disease, and to invest in aquaculture, cold chain systems, value addition and climate-resilient production systems.

South African agriculture minister John Steenhuisen, chairperson of the joint committee, said an estimated 58 million people across SADC member states face acute food insecurity. 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, urged member states to strengthen climate resilience and develop robust food security systems.

"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.

Masuka warned that Zimbabwe and other southern African countries were projected to become drier in the coming decades due to climate change. "The imperative to climate-proof our agriculture cannot be over-emphasised," he said.