Livingstone, Zambia- Farmer Organisations, groups and agricultural experts from Eastern and Southern Africa gathered in Livingstone today for the opening of the first ACTESA Regional Farmers Meeting.

The three day meeting, themed ‘Aligning Production to Markets’ is being hosted by the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa in collaboration with the East African Farmers Federation (EAFF) and the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU).

Zambian Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Eustarckio Kazonga represented by Dr. Richard Kamona, officially opened the meeting and commended ACTESA for the work it was doing by initiating innovative institutional arrangements to link small scale farmers to markets through their work with different stakeholders in agricultural development.

The meeting will allow farmers to share information on how to improve production and trade in staples that promote their socio-economic conditions and improve food security in the Eastern and Southern African (ESA) region.

Issues to be discussed include identifying more agro marketing initiatives for expanding regional agricultural trade, updating farmers on existing programmes and how they can benefit from them.

The meeting will also identify means of strengthening production, trade and market value chains in the region, national and regional policies affecting farmers, capacity building, policy dialogue, advocacy and outreach activities that ACTESA can support.