….Unveils peace flywheel to link African farmers to global markets

Zimbabwean author and entrepreneur, Dr Edwin Masimba Moyo, has emphasised that agriculture can keep young Africans out of war and drugs.

Dr Moyo, whose model is called the Africa Peace Flywheel, has worked in agriculture and structured finance for years. He launched Zimbabwe’s blueberry industry and set up its export market to China. He has run export projects across Zimbabwe and the Southern African region.

His model starts with a simple sum. “A 50-hectare blueberry farm empowers one farmer. But a 50-hectare project with an outgrower programme of another 50 hectares, with one hectare per farmer, empowers 50 farmers,” he said.

He said the approach brings jobs, help curb idle youths involvement in fighting useless wars or participating in drugs, because they have something to lose and gives small-scale farmers access to banks. “It removes poverty, hunger and disease,” he said, adding that farmers also connect to markets at once.

Dr Moyo said agriculture is the continent’s largest economy, while he blamed poor policies for fragmenting the sector and creating risk, as well as lenders for not being creative.

He stated that leaders misread Africa’s future by ignoring the chain from farm to plate and failing to formalise and finance it. His six books follow that chain, from growing and distribution to retail and nutrition.

Dr Moyo urged governments, investors and business leaders to first, build consensus on impact investment in agriculture. Second, end the shadow economies that keep people poor and dependent on the state, saying that such dependence lets officials control how people vote. Third, offer incentives to impact investors and build strong financial markets with long-term instruments such as bonds.

He also cites the UN. “The world spends about $66 trillion every year on peacekeeping and stopping wars,” he said. “Can you imagine the impact if those resources were invested in food instead?”

Recounting his experience, he stated that the government took over his $18 million export farm, Kondozi, and the move affected 5,000 employees and the local economy. He described the loss in his book, My Kondozi Story: The People’s Hope Pillaged. In A Tale of Persecution and Betrayal: Letters to My Countrymen After Kondozi, he examined the political persecution that followed.

“Those books themselves are a prescription for my Africa Peace Flywheel,” he said.

His other titles are Sowing the Future, launched at the University of Westminster in London, The Art of Shopping, Rethinking the Future and The Mathematics of Food.

“My hope is anchored in my Africa Peace Flywheel: a model for financial inclusion that connects the poorest farmers to global markets, creates jobs, and nurtures a new generation of entrepreneurs among Africa’s youth.

“When young people have hope, opportunity and ownership, they reject drugs and refuse to be used as mercenaries in senseless wars,” he said.

He stressed that if governments and investors adopt his model, Africa will see fewer wars and fewer young fighters. He also anticipates less hunger, less disease and less poverty.