Although the African Union agreed to implement it by July 1st, 2019, it has been postponed and further delayed by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Whenever implemented, AfCFTA could generate up to $35 billion per annum, cut importation by $10 billion, and increase the combined GDP of the countries to more than $2.5 trillion.

Also, it will ease the movement of people, goods, and services. It will create employment opportunities and become the largest free-trade zone in the world. It will also attract direct foreign investments to every country and quicken the industrialization of the continent.

AfCFTA holds a lot of promises for the agricultural, manufacturing, transportation, and other sectors that are directly or indirectly involved in the trade of goods within the continent. For this study, we will focus on helping farmers to understand the impact of AfCFTA on the agricultural sector.

Africa has the potential to become a major food producer and supplier for the rest of the world. For maximum productivity, the countries have to deepen integration and prepare common markets for intra-continental trade. The farmers need to put over 600 hectares of uncultivated arable lands into good use for large scale commercial farming. They need to replace outdated farming tools with modern technologies and techniques. And most importantly, agricultural policies must focus on the majority group of smallholder farmers.

These will not only increase food production but create jobs and reduce poverty for farmers who rely on agriculture as the only means of livelihood. In essence, AfCFTA will help ensure that the continent can feed its rapidly growing populations. It will foster macroeconomic convergence, economic integration, and decrease inequalities between wealthy and deprived economic regions.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement will help ensure the redistribution of agricultural produce from surplus to deficit regions. The governments will have to invest in infrastructural development to help farmers to access markets, storage facilities, drought-resistant seed, and invest in all aspects of the agricultural value chain. Governments also have to invest in research and development programs to help smallholder farmers understand modern techniques and technologies.

Implementing the AfCFTA will have farmers focus their energy on quality over quantity of yield. It will stir the need for basic infrastructure and facilities to ensure maximum productivity. In general, it will have multiplier effects in improving continental food security and sustainability from a trade perspective. Especially now when the continent is grappling to sustain production capacity due to environmental and political challenges.

Written by Joy Ejere Uche

The post A Farmer’s Guide to Understanding the AfCFTA appeared first on MTFC | Meet The Farmers Conference - Nov 2019 - Dubai UAE.

Crenov8 is a leading Management Consulting and Digital firm headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With this partnership, Ethiopian Airlines will be our ‘Official Airline Carrier’ for ‘Meet the Farmers Conference’ (MTFC) 2019.

A first-of-its-kind event, MTFC aims at bridging the trade gap between African & GCC region and is scheduled on 27th & 28th November 2019 in Dubai. The 2-day event will witness exhibitions, trade sessions and keynote speeches by stakeholders, off-takers, investors, farmers, dignitaries and innovators from across Africa and the GCC region travelling down to Dubai to build trade relations and network.

Seeing the potential and outreach of the initiative, Ethiopian Airlines partnered with us to ease the transport of over 500 attendees that will be participating in the event. They offer a 15% discount on business class fares, and a 12% discount on economy class fares will be provided to passengers flying to Dubai for the MTFC – 2019.

Ethiopian Airlines operates an extensive fleet that serves over 105 international destinations and over 20 countries within Africa. This makes them the largest African airline by the number of passengers carried and ranks them 4th by the number of countries served.

The partnership will unveil the previously untapped ‘Agro-conference airline’ territory for Ethiopian Airlines and will position it as the ‘Go-to’ airline for agribusiness stakeholders attending the MTFC – 2019. MTFC’s theme for the year is ‘Creating a Sustainable Future’ which is anchored on increasing agro-trade activities and leveraging export promotion as well as technology innovation to create sustainable agro-trade partnerships between African and GCC regions.

The previous editions of Meet the Farmers Conference have hosted dignitaries like H.E. Juma Mohamed Al Kait – Undersecretary to the Ministry of Economy UAE, H.E. Saud Salim – CEO of the Hamriyah Free Zone Authority, H.E. Samata Bukari – Consul General Consulate of Ghana in Dubai, Emmanuel Ijewere – Vice President, Nigeria Agribusiness Group amongst many others. This year’s conference promises to be bigger and more impactful; hosting stakeholders and dignitaries to learn, collaborate and build long-lasting partnerships towards the common goal of promoting agri-business relations between African & GCC regions.

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Photo Credit: guardian.ng

As part of its effort to ensure more participation in the agribusiness in Africa, Corporate farmers International (CFI) has launched an agriculture innovative platform, “Agrotainment radio” to create a wider and larger platform for the agribusiness industry in the continent.

The app will give Nigerian and African farmers a voice to talk, be heard and a platform to connect sellers of agricultural produce in Nigeria and Africa, to consumers in any nation across the globe.

As stated by CFI Managing Partner, Akin Alabi, during a chat with journalists in Lagos, he said, “the mobile app gives you an opportunity to showcase your products and services, provide an opportunity to get first-hand information on sponsors or grants for your agricultural projects.

“It is also a platform to further grow Nigeria and Africa’s agricultural extension services, and provide a 24-hour knowledge sharing platform on various agricultural enterprise and value chain.”

CFI National Coordinator, Ade Ajayi also maintained that, “Farmers voices need to be heard and we are also using this platform to reach out to a wider audience and also grow the Agric extension services.”

The app can be downloaded on Google Play Store for android mobile phone users.

The outlook of the African continent is here for everybody to exploit each opportunity and make individuals communicate and exhibit themselves to the world.

Check out more interesting stories on MTFC

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