The European Union (EU) is expected to grant Zimbabwe €6m in order to rehabilitate and upgrade irrigation schemes in Manicaland and Matebeleland South provinces. The two provinces will receive half of the money each under the four-year development scheme. Manicaland provincial administrator Fungai Mbetsa confirmed the news. He added that around 20 dilapidated irrigation schemes in the eastern province were expected to be repaired.

The EU is one of the largest donors of development aid, but economic interests are undermining its effectiveness. EU development aid aims to promote good governance, along with human and economic development. This implies promoting the sustainable use of natural resources and contributing to the fight against hunger and poverty. In the Lisbon Treaty, the EU called for a coherent policy when it comes to development. Therefore, any European policy decisions in foreign relations, agriculture or economy should not jeopardize the objectives of development policy.The reality, however, is different.

In the frame of the “Support Programme For The Consolidation Of the Action Framework Under The EU- Africa Partnership On Cotton”, financed by the European Commission (joint programme with DEVCO (E/3 Intra-ACP – ACP Secretariat, 10th EDF, Decision FED/2011/22702), the technical and administrative assistance to the ACP Secretariat, the contracting authority of the Programme, is carried out by the Programme Management Unit (PMU). The call for proposals n°135-548, “Improving the competitiveness and sustainability of the African Cotton Sectors” has just been published on the EuropeAid website.

Zimbabwe cotton industry will benefit from ACP-EU backing in developing a cotton-to-clothing strategy that aims at enhancing development and competitiveness of the sector. The cotton-to clothing strategy is funded by EU and the ACP and implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC). It will an improve the policy framework and provide a detailed implementation plan. The program will consider all specific export constraints and opportunities in order to improve the export competitiveness of Zimbabwe’s cotton sector.

A delegation representing the ACP Sugar Subcommittee and the ACP Secretariat visited the CIRAD facilities in Montpellier, France on the 8th April 2014. The ACP Research Programme Coordinating Unit facilitated the study tour. CIRAD is a French research centre working with developing countries on international agricultural and development issues. The ACP Sugar Subcommittee delegation and CIRAD noted the opportunity for collaboration in different areas.

We learned from the EU that the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, welcomed in Brussels, before the President Macky Sall ''the will for  Senegal to rely on agriculture, particularly on family farming, to develop'' its economy. Dacian Cioloş who met the Senegalese head of state present in Brussels for the summit between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU), reports: '' On this occasion, the source said, Commissioner Cioloş welcomed the eagerness of Senegal to rely on agriculture, particularly on family farming, to develop the Senegalese economy.''

As the world's largest agri-food market, the EU has ability to take a 'proactive' approach in coordination of global food policies, writes Paolo De Castro. According to him, food security has gained a renewed centrality in the political agenda since the peak in food prices in 2008. There was an implicit recognition that a more sophisticated policy coordination at global level is needed to meet the new challenges in the food supply scenario.

A new programme worth €33 million to improve land governance and help improve the food and nutrition security of family farmers and vulnerable communities in Sub Saharan Africa, was announced today by Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs. This will be done, among other things, through the application, at country level, of some Voluntary Guidelines set up by the international community in 2012 to improve land governance.

The European Union and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have had a steadfast and generous partnership in promoting sustainable rural development to improve the lives of the poor for over ten years. The EU is the biggest donor to the FAO, contributing US$1.2 billion to FAO’s field programme from 2008-2013. New projects signed between the EU and FAO in 2013 alone amounted to nearly US$ 200 million, of which 87% are funded through the EU’s delegations.

The 3308th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg on 14 April 2014 adopted a decision approving, on behalf of the Union, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (6852/13, 6874/13).