The ECOWAS Commission, through its Department for Economic Affairs and Agriculture headed by the Commissioner Kalilou Sylla, in cooperation with the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), organised on 23 March 2026 an online extraordinary meeting\u00a0 of ECOWAS Ministers of Agriculture on the impact of the international crisis and soaring oil prices on the fertiliser sector and food security in West Africa and the Sahel.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This meeting, which brought together ECOWAS agriculture ministers, regional agencies and technical and financial partners, resulted in the proposal of a long- and medium-term operational framework to safeguard food sovereignty and security in West Africa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These measures centre on the signing of immediate regional framework agreements to secure strategic volumes and build up emergency reserves before prices rise sharply, and the deployment of liquidity swap lines via central banks to address importers\u2019 shortage of foreign currency.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During his opening address, His Excellency Mr Kalilou Sylla also highlighted the state of emergency facing the region due to the impact of the war between the United States and the countries of the Middle East on food production systems, on the eve of the main planting seasons. He also reiterated the need for immediate strategic decision-making by ECOWAS member states.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe are facing a structural vulnerability that we can no longer ignore. Our agricultural systems are already suffering from alarming degradation, with more than two-thirds of our land depleted of nutrients. Experts point to a \u2018triple threat\u2019 that is suffocating our farmers: soaring gas-related prices, acute foreign currency shortages, and soil degradation that renders these inputs less effective.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n We must learn from recent crises. During the COVID-19 pandemic and at the start of the war in Ukraine, the average price of fertiliser rose from $256 to $941 per tonne. We have learnt the hard way that reactive and isolated responses fail. They increase the tax burden on governments without protecting farmers. History shows us that only\u2026\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Presiding over the session, the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Sierra Leone, His Excellency Dr Henry Musa Kpaka, sounded the alarm in his opening address. Indeed, Dr Kpaka reminded the various ministers present of the extreme gravity of the situation that had brought them together, their shared responsibilities in mitigating the effects of this crisis, and the need to develop a unified and concrete response.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He also emphasised that, in the face of rapid rising fertiliser prices, it is crucial to build regional resilience and establish a sustainable supply mechanism. This crisis presents an opportunity to shift paradigms and explore innovative solutions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs leaders responsible for our nations\u2019 agricultural policies, the responsibility for mitigating the effects of the crisis rests squarely with us. We cannot simply wait for international markets to correct themselves. We must ensure our own regional resilience,\u201d<\/em> he added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the same vein, the ministries of agriculture from the various member states present commended the ECOWAS Commission for its prompt action and efforts, and reiterated the strict necessity of aligning the various national strategies with the overall regional strategy in order to ensure a coherent and unified response.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ECOWAS Commission, through its Department for Economic Affairs and Agriculture headed by the Commissioner Kalilou Sylla, in cooperation with the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), organised on 23 March 2026 an online extraordinary meeting\u00a0 of ECOWAS Ministers of Agriculture on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":128041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,480,12,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-info-cedeao-2","category-news","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128044,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128039\/revisions\/128044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecowas.int\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}