NAIROBI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The UN food agency has called on African countries to speed up regional integration efforts to stop the decline in returns from trade in agricultural production and the deepening of the food crisis on the continent.

    The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) experts said decline in returns from trade in agricultural production is itself a product of market fragmentation at sub-region, national and even sub-national levels.

    "These segmented gaps between regional, national and domestic production and regional demand are increasingly being filled by imports of non-African origin, even in cases where tradable surpluses exist," FAO said in a paper presented at the regional conference on food security underway in Nairobi.

    Experts said Africa's spending on cereal imports is expected to rise by more than 50 percent in 2008, with countries like Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and Nigeria among the world's top rice importers, suffering most because their import source in southeast Asia is reeling from similar problems.

    They said situation has been worsened by steep fuel prices that have raised transport and utility costs.

    FAO said segmentation of markets had left the continent with units that are not profitable, making the sector unattractive to private investment.

    "For selected strategic commodities, a common African market that transcends national and sub-regional borders offers an appropriate economic space to foster private investments in this key sector," said the UN food agency.

    The world's poorest continent is currently reeling from a global food crisis triggered by surging energy and commodity prices.

    Boosting agriculture and food security tops the five-day conference agenda which kicked off in Nairobi on Monday.

    "I am confident that the results of the deliberations will provide the organization and its partners with recommendations and necessary guidance to help boost agricultural development and food security in Africa," FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said in a statement.

    Diouf said small-scale farmers and poor households will be the worst hit as they rely on markets that have been rattled by rising inflationary trends.

    To increase competitiveness in the market, FAO is proposing the creation of a Free Trade Area (FTA) for Africa that will facilitate a seamless flow of strategic commodities across national borders while maintaining high profit margins.

    According to FAO, to ease the selection of commodities that are qualified to trade under such rules, the African continent should come up with a foods basket in which every item is weighted on the basis of their consumption and contribution to the foreign exchange earnings of producing countries.

    The proposals for a grand FTA for Africa comes at a time when three regional trading blocs have set in motion a process that may lead to the establishment of the continent's largest common market.

    The Africa regional conference is further set to discuss ways of boosting agriculture and food security by improving water management.

    Kenya's Water and Irrigation Minister Charity Ngilu challenged the continent to implement various plans and policies that have so far been generated towards improving water management.

    Ngilu said Kenya would be seeking to implement policies that will attract increased funding to double food production in the country.

    "The farmer must be enabled to produce so that Kenyans can access affordable food. We can lower inflation and grow our economy," she said.

    During the opening of the technical experts meeting, Kenya called for increased funding to boost food production and eventually food security in the region.

    Agriculture Minister William Ruto called on African governments to prioritize huge investments in the agricultural sector to reduce dependence on aid.

    In line with the rise in the number of those facing starvation and high population growth rates, African countries have recorded a progressive growth in food imports reaching well over 20 billion U.S. dollars currently.

    At the same time food aid creates a considerable external dependency. The continent received close to 4 million tons of food aid in 2006 alone.

    The meeting comes as the continent struggles under a global food crisis triggered by surging energy and commodity prices.

    The food crisis has already attracted violent demonstrations in various African countries including Kenya, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Mauritania.