‘FARMERS FACE DEVASTATION’

MBABANE –Eswatini family farmers are said to be among the millions in Africa facing economic devastation as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts exports and global food supply chains.

This is according to the Impact of Coronavirus on Africa’s Agriculture April 2020 report released by Selina Wamucii that gives a most-recent and ground-up perspective on how the pandemic is affecting African farmers.

According to John Oroko, CEO of Selina Wamucii, intra-Africa trade is around two per cent, while exports from Africa to the rest of the world range from 80 to 90 per cent of total exports, of which a huge share is made up of agricultural produce.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has unfortunately come at a time when our farmers depend largely on exports to markets outside the continent and also before the commencement of trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that was scheduled to commence on July 1, 2020, thereby creating a single continental market of more than 1.3 billion people. Now, unlike no other time, we can see a demonstration of why the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area will be directly linked to securing the livelihoods of African farmers in the future,” said Oroko.

disrupting

COVID–19 is said to be severely disrupting trade in key markets for Africa’s agricultural produce and African farmers are bound to experience a nightmare in export market access.

“African farmers are a relatively elderly demographic and 70 per cent of Africa’s food is currently produced by women, who are also primary caregivers across many of Africa’s rural regions. This means, therefore, that a key segment of the farmers in the region is also at a higher risk of contracting COVID–19,” reads the report.

While the agricultural production in neighbouring South Africa has not been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, logistics and border restrictions are likely to affect South Africa’s agricultural exports. The country has closed 35 land borders and two seaports.
 Coupled with the fact that the county also has prohibited crew changes in all of its ports amid a looming container shortage, the export volume is bound to go down especially for fish, seafood and fresh vegetables.

Eswatini is said to be the second largest supplier of agricultural produce to South Africa’s market in the SACU region.
SACU is the Southern African Customs Union. Eswatini mainly exports sugar and related products, jam, pineapples and animal feed preparations to South Africa.

“Other African countries that will experience significant drops in the FFV, fish and seafood exports are, in order of the projected severity: Tunisia, Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda, Mauritania, Tanzania, and Egypt,” reads the report.

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