Regional food security and agricultural policy in southern Africa: A challenge of policy conversion in diverse settings

Regional food security is viewed as one of the major challenges for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and the important role of agriculture in this challenge has been highlighted. This article confirms these notions, but continues to argue the complexity and diversity of the region, the importance of creating agricultural policy conversion and harmonisation, despite this diverse setting, and the parameters for agriculture to support food security in the region. Timmer's agricultural 'growth' model is adapted and applied to the southern African region to create a framework for such conversion.