For Africa to achieve the Agenda 2063 aspiration for “A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development” (Aspiration 1) the continent needs to invest in modern agriculture for increased proactivity and production as well as exploit the vast potential of Africa’s blue/ocean economy.

The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) is one of the continental frameworks under Agenda 2063 and it aims to help African countries eliminate hunger and reduce poverty by raising economic growth through agriculture-led development as well as promoting increased national budget provision to the agriculture sector. In July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique, the Heads of State and Government launched the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), an agriculture-led integrated framework of development priorities aimed at reducing poverty and increasing food security on the continent by committing to spend at least 10% of their national budget on agriculture (AU-NEPAD, 2003).

The commitment to CAADP was renewed at the Assembly of the AU in 2009 in Sirte, Libya, and reaffirmed in 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with the adoption of the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated African Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihood.

Other key stakeholders such as the private sector and development partners also committed to aligning to CAADP accordingly with, for example, the launch of the Grow Africa initiative for private sector enterprises (Grow Africa, 2016) as development partners committed to tying their assistance to progress in implementing CAADP. Clearly, the vision to end hunger would be realized through doubling of the current productivity level by embracing technological innovations to drive agricultural transformation coupled with necessary appropriate policy and institutional conditions and support systems that facilitate sustainable and reliable production and access to quality and affordable inputs.

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