From Benjamin Mensah, GNA Special Correspondent, Sirte, Libya

Sirte (Libya), July 02, GNA - African leaders have been urged to commit more resources to agriculture to reverse the escalating food crisis, and to end the renewed violence in parts of the continent. Dr Jean Ping, President of the African Union (AU) Commission, opined that the Continent had the means which, coupled with enough external support, could enable her to overcome the food crisis and regain her position as a continent that mattered. Opening the 13 Ordinary Session of the Assembly, presided over by AU Chairman and Libyan Leader MuamarAl-Gadaffi, in Sirte, Libya, Dr Ping noted that economic growth in some African countries in the last five years before the global financial crisis, gave hope that African leaders could reverse the crisis.

He said the Union was determined in its pursuit of efforts to address the economic crisis and satisfy the daily aspirations of the people.

Ghanaian President Prof John Evans Atta Mills, is attending for the first time, the three-day summit which is on the theme, "Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security."

President Mills had earlier attended the 11th Summit of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) at the same venue on Tuesday. Until recently, agriculture has often been neglected in the national budget plans of some African countries, and women and children bear the brunt of hunger and malnutrition, resulting in children's stunted growth and ultimate slow long term development. As food prices continue to fluctuate and remain higher than the poorest can afford, some countries have been forced to barter to obtain the necessary food imports.

United Nations (UN) estimates show that about 625 million people currently go hungry in Sub-Saharan Africa. The already precarious situation, according to UN Deputy Secretary-General Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, is expected to get worse, as the world body projects that economic growth in Africa would sharply decrease from 4.9 per cent in 2008 to 0.9 in 2009, and poverty as a whole would rise by 1.2 per cent in 2009. The Deputy Secretary-General stressed the importance of investing in agriculture to create jobs. "Investment in agriculture could make economic growth more durable and increase food and nutritional security."

Dr Migiro called on African countries to have a national strategy for agricultural development and to live up to the pledge to raise agricultural spending to 10 percent of the national budget. The African leaders at the summit are expected to discuss means of strengthening the role of the AU in the prevention, management and resolution of election disputes and violent conflicts on the world's poorest continent, according to the summit's draft agenda. They will also explore ways of preventing unconstitutional changes of government and strengthening the capacity of the AU to deal with such situations.

The Libya summit would also focus on the implementation of a decision adopted at the AU's Ethiopia Summit in February this year to transform the AU Commission, the executive arm of the pan-African body, into the new AU Authority.

A number of hot regional issues, including the security situation in Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sudan's Darfur region, are also expected to be discussed by the African heads of state and government. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Premier Silvio Berlusconi of Italy were present at the meeting. The 13th AU summit was previously scheduled for July in Madagascar, but membership of that country was suspended in March due to a political stalemate there, and hence the cancellation of its hosting of the summit.

The AU was established in 2002 to replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU) founded in 1963. It aims, among other things, at preserving and promoting peace and stability on the African continent, carrying out a strategy of reform and poverty reduction, and realizing the development and renewal of the African continent. 02 July 09