Boosting Intra-African Agricultural Trade to Build Resilience of Smallholder Farmers

20 January 2022

This session explored how increased intra-African trade has the potential to stabilize regional food supplies, increase the resilience of markets to local production fluctuations and international price shocks, and give farmers access to larger and more lucrative regional markets.
The event featured interventions from a variety of speakers from multiple organizations: IFAD, AKADEMIYA2063, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) secretariat, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Cairo University and the Pan Africa Farmers Organization (PAFO). 

The event aimed at answering the following questions:

• What is the role of innovation and intra-African trade in accelerating the recovery of African economies from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic?
• What role can innovation in regional trade play in stabilizing domestic food supplies and increasing the resilience of markets to local production and price shocks? 
• What are the potential benefits of AfCFTA implementation and increased intra-African trade for local producers?
• What are the next steps for the AfCFTA Secretariat and other actors to advance AfCFTA implementation? 
• How can African countries, regions and continental institutions ensure that responses to future crises do not impede cross-border trade?

If you would like to watch the event, a recording can be found here InnovationTalk#8 - Boost Intra-African Agricultural Trade to Build Resilience of Small-Scale Farmers - YouTube