Non-Tariff Measures Affecting Agricultural Trade in SADC

The establishment of the World Trade Organisation in 1995 and subsequent proliferation of the regional and bilateral trade agreements resulted in the decline of global tariffs. However, other trade and regulatory measures have increased and thus restricted potential trade to some extend. These measures, non-tariff measures (NTMs) have also affected intra-SADC trade as there was no evidence of growth in the trade that needed to accompany the decline in tariffs. The extent of the impact of NTMs on SADC trade is still not fully understood due lack of such data, which effectively affected the quality of research in this area. In this paper data on NTM related to SADC agricultural products for ten countries were compiled to shed some light on these measures as well as to make them transparent. The results confirm that these countries have increased their use of NTMs of the period. As a result, on average one product is subjected to 17 NTMs in 2010. SACU is the leader in the use of NTMs, while Malawi had the least incidences of NTMs. Most of The NTMs are applied on fruits, meat, dairy, vegetables and cereal products. The use of sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures (SPS) and export measures were increasing faster than other categories. Finally, there is an indication that NTMs are used as substitutes for the declining tariffs. NTMs are trade restricting, and if they are not addressed they will continue to reverse the gains of SADC free trade area as well as other initiatives of trade liberalisation.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ragr202017-12-31hb2017Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

Driving force analysis for food loss changes in Cameroon

Reducing food losses (FL) is a promising way of improving food security. This is much more urgent for the developing world with a high level of food insecurity. However, driving factors contributing to the changes of FL are poorly understood. Here, we report on an investigation into the contribution of five potential driving factors to FL in Cameroon between 1994 and 2013, using a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) approach. The results showed that FL in Cameroon has increased more than 4 fold during the study period. The increase of FL per unit crop production (intensity effect) contributed the most to increase FL (36.87% of the total change), followed by the increase of per capita crop consumption, i.e. supply scale effect (34.55%), population growth (26.72%), and changes of crop production structure, i.e. structure effect (5.079%). Only the dependency on self-production (self-sufficiency effect) contributed to decrease FL (3.22%)