Hello From Africa

[gavinchifodya@gm]

Hello Dear Community. I have just this community and looking forward to learn from everyone and also share my experience from Africa. I am currently researching on why Africa is importing food from Asia, Europe, and the Americas and yet we have the best arable soils in the world.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[pascal]

I'm coming also from Africa Rwanda yeah I agree with you but our country has establish the politics of reducing imported goods especially the agricultural ones ,so that's why I'm seeing an opportunity in this sector .so if you're wise you know what todo

 

[Schonox]

Time to ride a tutu wearing rhinoceros

 

[Stargazer]

No need to research.

You don't process raw materials into finished products. You also didn't, and mostly don't, have transport networks to move those raw materials.

In the case of agricultural products you can add lack of refrigeration/proper storage to the mix.

How can you pick a crop in one village and get it to a village 20 miles away before it rots?

Most African produce just rots away as there is no proper facilities to store it if picked, let alone process it into something else like a chocolate bar.

It's not just food. It's almost everything.

I would focus on small scale storage solutions with integrated logistics and invite European processing companies to set up in conjunction and in situ rather than the current export and re-import the finished product model.

Dan

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Awakened2022]

Hello Dear Community. I have just this community and looking forward to learn from everyone and also share my experience from Africa. I am currently researching on why Africa is importing food from Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and yet we have the best arable soils in the world.

Welcome to the forum. Which country are you from?
I am also baffled by the fact that the millet I sell at my grocery store comes from Tanzania.

I have found a need( clean and aflatoxin-free dry cassava chips and flour). You can read my progress in the thread :Farming my way into the fast lane.

You can look into providing clean seeds to farmers, providing good storage facilities, and adding value to these products...The opportunities are endless. Just choose what you feel solves the biggest problem in your area
and you will get paid handsomely.

Let us stop bemoaning our fate in where we were born and embrace these abundant opportunities.

When you have made up your mind, start a progress thread and watch the good advice roll in.

 

[Mikkel]

@Stargazer hit the nail on the head.

On top of lack of refrigeration technique, I would say the largest reason is the lack of quality transportation or in plenty of cases, a total lack of transportation.

That may mean there are roads from one location to another, but is the roads suitable for transportation of a large amount of good?

If I am not mistaken, there is probably about 30% of all the roads in African(some countries average higher than 30% and some much lower) that are even feasible for transportation of goods. That means the transportation of goods from one location to another is far more difficult.

The transportation of goods issue primarily affects a counties GDP negatively, which means less capital to further develop transportation and less investment in technology that would further increase the areas GDP.

The solution to your problem would involve one of two outcomes. You developed/produce a product that could justify the improvement of roads in your area that would lead to increased profits and pay off the cost to build these roads.

or

Your entire area would benefit so greatly from these roads being installed that the taxes gained from the local community would pay for the roads and thus increase GDP and profits.


To prove the point more as to why proper transportation is so critical. Look at the history of the United States. How in only 400 years did the US go from no economy to the largest economy in the world? I would argue it was mainly two reasons(other then the fact we decided to have private property rights).
One was the Mississippi River and its rivers that feed into the Mississippi. In the early days that was essentially a natural transportation highway. A free road, occasionally needed a lock or damn, but essentially free. Those river systems helped transport goods far and wide for a low cost.

The second was the east coast water way. A large percentage of the East Coast of the US has a natural waterway next to the Atlantic Ocean that made for quick, easy, and safe transportation of goods from North to South and vice versa.

Transportation is a major key to prosperity for any country or continent.

 

[Mikkel]

yet we have the best arable soils in the world.

You have the most amount of arable land, not necessarily the best. Africa has ~60% of all arable land. I would say a country like India, Russia, Ukraine, and US have some of the highest quality arable land.

With that being said, Africa also is the most resource rich continent in the world yet that has not been enough to enrich the continent of Africa yet. I think at some point it will, but there are systemic problems in certain countries that ends up harming Africa more than helping. That is a whole different topic though.

My suggestion, find a way to enrich yourself first. Then your next goal should be to enrich others by helping them enrich you. Be the person who helps grow your community.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Awakened2022]

My suggestion, find a way to enrich yourself first. Then your next goal should be to enrich others by helping them enrich you. Be the person who helps grow your community.

Nicely put. What can you do today in the field of agriculture that would make your neighbour hand his hard-earned money over to you? What does your community need that you can provide? What do you yourself complain about often that you can help make better?

For instance, in my village, I have realized we lack a seed system. People just buy and plant beans, peas, peanuts, maize, and soya beans without a thought about the suitability of the soil, the marketability of such seeds, how fast they mature, etc. Therefore, if someone dedicated time to providing good quality seeds, with some extension advice, they might have a viable business in the long run.

What @Mikkel has said about transportation is spot on. Most of the Murram roads in my area are only passable during the dry season. When the rains start, going to the village is dictated by weather conditions. Sometimes we are forced to use a longer route where we use twice as much fuel or abandon the trip altogether.

I doubt one person's efforts can impact government policies unless that person is a seasoned politician. Maybe OP can court his political representatives to improve the road network in his area.

I have tried this, and we shall have piped water in my village soon.