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Agriculture Program Overview

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OverviewProgram Description

 

Agriculture is a primary source of rural income and fundamental to food security in most Southern African countries, as both a source of revenue and nutrition.

The overarching goal of USAID/SA’s regional Feed the Future (FTF) strategy is: Enhanced Regional Food Security. To achieve this goal, USAID/SA will invest FTF resources to achieve results under two main objective areas, increasing intra-regional trade and increasing agricultural productivity, with a third cross-cutting area of improving policies to support agricultural growth. These three objective areas are as follows: 1) Increased Intra-Regional Trade of Key Commodities and Inputs for Selected Value Chains 2) Increased Agricultural Productivity and 3) Improved Regional and National Government Policies to Support Agricultural Growth.

Activities are closely aligned with the efforts of the Africa Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to achieve objectives established under its Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). This plan also aims to support the Southern Africa Development Community’s (SADC) objectives as expressed in its Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP). The RISDP covers key approaches to alleviating poverty and improving food security, and, although RISDP pre-dates CAADP, it is supportive of all four CAADP pillars (land and water management, market access, food supply and hunger, and agriculture research).