The SADC Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Department says production of cereals has remained stagnant in the past four years and resulted in shortfalls that have to be met by imports or crop substitution with non-cereals.

The region has also recorded deficits for sorghum, wheat, rice and millet while maize recorded a surplus of 326 000 tonnes during the 2013/2014 summer cropping season. However, projections for the maize surplus for the 2014/2015 summer cropping season are estimated to reach 4,1 million tonnes.

SADC Director for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ms Margaret Nyirenda said National Early Warning Units have been established in 12 of the 15 member states to collect, analyse and disseminate information at national level on impending food insecurity problems.

He added that small holder farmers in the rural areas across the region have contributed significantly to an increase in food production levels.

“Irrigation water harvesting technologies and conservation farming popular in Zimbabwe and Zambia and these will have more impact. We initially went for big technologies which we couldn’t sustain and our people were not capacitated enough to run those whether it was canal, drip irrigation or sprinkle irrigation. The majority of our people are in the rural areas, so we have to promote most of the small scale technologies to increase food production in those areas,” Ms Nyirenda said.

She said livestock production has been increasing by 4% annually while the production of animal products such as meat, milk and eggs has increased by 2,8%, 2,0% and 3% respectively due to training and strengthening of veterinary institutions in member states to better manage the risk posed by trans-boundary animal diseases.

Chronic malnutrition, whose level is above 30%, remains a challenge in the region especially among the vulnerable and poor. Food prices have been increasing due to higher demand for food crops for use in bio-fuels rather than human consumption while natural disasters have also affected food security.

The region has developed a Regional Agriculture Policy and a Regional Food and Nutrition Security Strategy for the 2015 to 2025 period and both will be considered by the Summit.