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SAFADA calls for strong support system in deals

SAFADA calls for strong support system in deals
By Joan Chirwa
Friday June 06, 2008 [04:00]

SMALL-scale farmers in Zambia need a concrete and strong support system for survival once the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) come into effect, Small-Scale Farmers Development Agency (SAFADA) director Boyd Moobwe has said. And East and Southern Africa Small-Scale Farmers Forum (ESAFF) vice regional chairperson Mubanga Kasakula has said small-scale farmers have been facing numerous difficulties in influencing policies designed for them due to inadequate information about trade arrangements like the EPAs.

During a three-day workshop on the EPAs and regional integration which ended in Lusaka yesterday, Moobwe said small-scale farmers in East and Southern Africa regions had been operating under stress, hence opening competition with the European Union (EU) would completely put them out of business.

“The vision of the EPA is a very big one and it needs a lot of time to discuss and come up with concrete resolutions before Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries sign the full EPA in December this year. We don’t need to rush into signing this agreement, we need to have case studies and see what repercussions the trade arrangement would have on small-scale farmers,” he said.

“Our experience nationally and regionally is that the capacity of farmers and the organisations that represent them has been weak,” Kasakula said.

Zambia and a few other countries in the region have signed an interim EPA, which would be replaced by the full EPA, expected to be signed this December.

The EU engineered EPAs will require countries to engage in reciprocal trade once implemented. However, most ESA and ACP countries do not have the capacity to compete on the EU markets as farmers in the EU are heavily subsidised.

Labels: EPAs, ESAFF, SAFADA

posted by MrK @ 3:58 PM