{"id":38963,"date":"2026-07-07T08:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38963"},"modified":"2026-07-07T08:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T06:47:07","slug":"eac-ministers-adopt-10-year-plan-to-transform-regional-food-security","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/eac-ministers-adopt-10-year-plan-to-transform-regional-food-security\/","title":{"rendered":"EAC Ministers adopt 10-year plan to transform regional food security \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Agriculture Ministers from the East African Community (EAC) have adopted a series of major policy, regulatory, and investment measures designed to transform regional food systems and eliminate food insecurity for 300 million people.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meeting at the 19th Session of the Sectoral Council on Agriculture and Food Security, officials formally endorsed the ambitious EAC Regional Agri-Food Systems Investment Plan running from 2026 to 2035. The 10-year roadmap seeks to channel $1.5 billion annually into agricultural infrastructure, climate resilience, and digital technologies, with the goal of turning the region from a net food importer into a global agricultural powerhouse.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To boost competitiveness and slash a $2.5 billion annual food import bill, the Ministers approved strict guidelines to strengthen the EAC Rice Development Strategy. The measures include lowering non-tariff trade barriers, accelerating mechanisation, and launching a specialised &#8220;Rice Desk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the council adopted new crop inspection procedures, a hazardous pesticide management strategy, and established the &#8220;Youth in Agri-Food Systems&#8221; platform to drive youth agribusiness employment across East Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica\/EAC&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":24076,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-38963","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Regional Ministers launch landmark investment roadmap for East African farmers","published_date":"2026-07-07 08:45:08","news_description":"Regional Ministers launch landmark investment roadmap for East African farmers","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38967,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38963\/revisions\/38967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}