National Development Strategy.

The National Development Strategy is a national multi-sectoral strategy of Swaziland for the period 1997-2022. The central vision of the document is to have Swaziland, by 2022, in the top 10% of the medium human development group of countries founded on sustainable economic development, social justice and political stability.
In the area of food security, the document plans to promote production of crops and livestock for domestic and international markets by both small and large scale farmers; encourage diversification of agricultural production whilst intensifying production of high valued crops and stock; promote food management, processing and storage techniques at both national and household level and facilitate optimal distribution of food within households, communities and regions; monitor progress of government food security programmes, evaluate their impacts, and revise programmes according to agricultural production; devote part of the revenue accruing from agricultural commodity taxes to the promotion of growth within the industry where the taxed product originates; and participate in the development of a food security risk mapping, identify vulnerable areas and promote appropriate packages for the different areas.
The document promotes sustainable development and environmental protection. For this objective it proposes fully integrating environmental management and development planning; establishing a national environmental mechanism for ensuring that the environmental priorities of national planning are observed and sought after; and ensuring a gender dimension in environmental management.
In addition, the Strategy aims for developing agricultural research; promote rural employment; reorganise early warning system, extension with a view of making these services more accessible and responsive to the agricultural sector; increase the access of agricultural producers to credit; encourage domestic investment whilst nurturing entrepreneurial skills; re-orient agricultural production such that activities are in accordance with the agroecological zones; promote rural markets, assembly markets and produce collection points, whilst developing capacity for local expertise to produce finished goods for sale in the domestic, regional and international markets; formulate policies regarding importation and exportation of agro-based and agricultural products in order to assure a safe balance of domestic supply and demand; take measures for rational land use and tenure; support cooperatives; and encourage and promote the concept of community participation in the use and management of the natural resource base.