Agriculture, Trade and Market Access

Objectives

The cluster on Agriculture, Trade and Market Access was convened by FAO. The objectives of the cluster are:

1. To help implement the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development
Programme (CAADP) adopted by NEPAD: assist the NEPAD secretariat through land reclamation, promotion of investment in agricultural production, promote public-private partnership at sub-regional levels, land reform and land tenure, improvement in rural infrastructure, reduce post-harvest losses and enhance women’s participation and entrepreneurial activities including in rural areas.

2. Ensure better market access to African exports: Assist African countries in the context of post Doha negotiations, suggesting means to improve access to markets for African exports including food and agricultural products, providing assistance to meet standards including sanitary and phytosanitary requirements as well as standard setting, support capacity building in agricultural trade analysis and negotiations, help remove supply side bottlenecks and increase supply capacity, and enhance intra-African trade.

3. Diversify commodity dependent economies: reduce commodity dependence and terms of trade losses, price stabilization including measures for supply management, enhance competitiveness of African commodities in Africa and international markets, processing of agricultural commodities to add value, horizontal diversification into dynamic products where there is comparative advantage, diversification of markets to non-traditional partners.