Mr Chairman,
Distinguished Governors,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

As we meet on this important occasion to take stock of activities of IFAD during the past year, I am pleased to have the opportunity to address the Governing Council on behalf of my Government.

The Governing Council is meeting at the beginning of what promises to be a very difficult and challenging year for the world as a whole and, for developing countries in particular.

From the Agenda, we note that the 32nd Session of the Council will consider a number of issues that are pertinent to addressing the challenges that face our countries and this organization in the future.

We are happy to note that the 8th Replenishment is the biggest that IFAD has ever had and will therefore go a long way in fighting rural poverty.

Since this is your last Session of Council, let me seize this opportunity to pay growing tribute to you Mr. President for your outstanding leadership of IFAD during the past eight years. During your tenure of office, IFAD has tremendously improved its operational and organisational effectiveness and efficiency.

It has also not been lost on us that Sub-Sahara Africa has been the major beneficiary of your efforts, receiving about 50% of IFAD resources. We thank you greatly for reaching out to us in such a big way.

My delegation also takes this opportunity to assure the incoming President, Zambia’s cooperation in our common endeavours.

Mr Chairman,

Food and agriculture are at the core of improving the living standards of people and of eradicating poverty as well as ensuring sustainable economic development. However, we meet today at a time when rising food prices and food availability still pose a menacing threat to the world’s poorest populations. Coupled with the volatile food price situation are the financial and economic crises which have already led to massive unemployment in most countries.

The world continues to experience fluidity in the energy, commodities and food markets. Although energy prices have dropped on the international market, regions like Africa have continued to experience high cereal and commodity prices.

Coupled with this are the continuing challenges of unprecedented and rapid migration from rural to urban areas; poor harvest attributed to climate changes and in some instances, the conversion of land use from food crops to bio-fuel crops.

This has been a major setback in our economies and has negatively affected the lives of poor rural people, particularly women and children. The positive side of this matter is that rising commodity prices could improve the incomes of smallholder farmers if more rewarding prices are realized at the farm gate and if supporting policies and investments are put in place. In reflecting on these and many other vexing issues, we need to engage in meaningful and serious dialogue on the way forward in search of solutions.

We wish, therefore, to commend the IFAD Secretariat for selecting the topics and themes for the side events because they do need special attention.

It may be equally acknowledged that a considerable portion of the non-farm urban employment is somehow linked to agriculture in the sense that African urban poor spend about 60 to 70 percent of their budget on food. This means that the urban and rural livelihoods are inter-connected through linkages between agriculture and the urban economy. We are, therefore, as a country taking necessary measures to allocate sufficient resources to agriculture in accordance with the Maputo Declaration.

Mr Chairman,

In order to mitigate the negative implications of the effects of the current global economic downturn on our small-scale farmers, my Government has put in place the following measures.

In the short term my Government intends to:

• Improve accessibility and availability of agricultural inputs through agricultural inputs subsidy for the poorest farmers.
• Embark on agricultural productivity enhancement by improving budgetary allocation to research and extension in order to improve service delivery in land management through conservation agriculture (i.e. minimum tillage, residual management, crop rotation, etc.), climate resilient farming and efficient use of agricultural inputs; and
• Provide funding for small scale irrigation has also been increased.

In the medium and long term my Government intends:

• Opening up new land for increased production.
• Promoting productive efficiency of crops, livestock and fisheries.
• Promoting agriculture research.
• Promoting agriculture marketing, trade and agri-business.
• Promoting irrigation; and
• Infrastructure development.

With IFAD’s support, the food security of the targeted vulnerable families in my country is improving while poverty levels are gradually coming down.

On behalf of my Government, I would also like to express our appreciation to IFAD for venturing into new initiatives in our agriculture and rural development areas.

These include support to socially desirable and economically viable irrigation schemes, smallholder agribusiness promotion, livestock disease control and animal draught power-oriented restocking.

Indeed, these areas are in line with our priorities in the agriculture sector.

These programmes will significantly contribute to increased income and food security among our small-holder farmers.

Mr. Chairman,

Before I conclude my remarks, I am glad to note that IFAD has recently taken the initiative of opening up a Country Office in Zambia. We are grateful for this as it is the most effective way of ensuring better support to programmes through regular dialogue with national partners.

Mr Chairman,

Let me conclude by expressing my Government’s gratitude to IFAD and other bilateral and multilateral and financing partners for supporting our programmes for many years.

I thank you.