IF I WERE AN AFRICAN LEADER, HOW WOULD I PROMOTE AFRICAN INTRA-TRADE TO UNLOCK AGRICULTURAL POTENTIAL IN THE CONTINENT

Agriculture is an ancient savior to mankind, right from the days of our forefathers till date, The importance of Agriculture cannot be over emphasized in planet we called earth, it plays a major role in economic growth and development. As the provider of food, it is an essential element of human existence. As a furnisher of industrial raw materials it is an important contributor to economic activity in other sectors of the economy. It was the key development in the rise of inactive human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled sustain life of urban settlers. Agriculture is defined as the science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting products. Among the the top producing countries of agricultural products are the United States, China, India, and Russia respectively.

In elevating African intra-trade to unlock agriculture potential, it is life-and-death to examine and study how the top producing countries are operating their agricultural sector. It is not new normal that countries like China and India feature prominently on the lists of top agricultural producers, why? Because these countries have large populations and internal food security (that is, producing enough to feed a nation’s population from internal resources) is a major priority. These countries are turning to genetically modified seeds to increase yields and the gainful part of their agricultural method is that most of these developed countries have 0% tolerance for fertile land to go to waste, and infrastructure like roads are well-developed in order bto aid free flow import and export of agricultural produces. Likewise, irrigation is widespread, and farmers use fertilizer extensively to bring bumper harvest.

Unlike Africa, the picture is literally different from developed countries, Nigeria as a case study, the infrastructure is extremely under-developed and simply getting crops to market (or inputs like fertilizer to the farms) can be a struggle, the safety of Farmers is not granty Likewise, irrigation infrastructure is lacking, leaving farmers much more exposed to the variability of weather. But as a leader, I will give zero percent tolerance for fertile land to go to waste and provision of fertilizers and tractors will be made available for every local government. It is very crucial for me to shift a huge attention to countries roads and social amenities. It will yield zero development if the roads are not well developed, the health center are not well equipped and water circulation is bad, it is very imperative to take these into consideration.

In elevating African intra-trade, I will start engaging with top producing countries to exchange their agricultural produces to compare with my country’s products and find the difference between these products. I will also trade African countruies that has petty tax or tariffs to ensure the revolutionary of intra-trade between African countries will work and by so doing the importation of agricultural produces will be cheaper in my country and neighbouring countries.

It was said and quote that, “Two heads are better than One”, to apply the agricultural and trading method of countries like China, India, United States and Russia, it is consequential to adopted the system of unitary among the top producing countries, their agricultural strategies and statics will be known to African countries that have lower knowledge of agricultural advancement. With the coming together of these countries, technological innovations directed to agriculture will be known in every seminar.

Thus, Agricultural potential can be improved by examing the top producing countries strategies and statics of farming and trading, examing and studying their method will not be enough if I failed to apply them to my country and engaged the top producing countries to have a unitary establishment where under developed countries can gain more knowledge of agricultural and trading.

ODEJIDE PROMISE OLAMILEKAN