ABSTRACT.
In the world, markets face a lot of distortions; with agricultural markets being more vulnerable and facing the heaviest of distortions. The most common of these distortions is the tariff. To a greater or lesser extent, most African countries tend to feel the pinch more because a majority of the African population live in the rural areas and embark on agriculture as their main occupation. Reflecting on my research paper, my focus would be concentrated on market openness and free trade. Cameroon and other developing African countries will tend to benefit more on trade openness from the developed nations than when there were trade barriers. But looking at the situation at hand, a lot of things need to be fulfilled by the Cameroonian government to see that these benefits reach the peasant farmers. The Cameroon government and the international bodies that be (like the WTO, FAO), must put heads together to how these benefits reach the rural farmers and results in attaining the goal of poverty reduction. If not then the farmers and the rural population at large would remain under the poverty line.
This paper has identified some of the focal pints to hit on, both at the macro level and at the micro level. At the macro level, all the parties involved should put heads together to results on the market distortions that plaque agricultural exports from Africa while at the micro level, the results show that for the benefits to filtered right to the farmers’ hands, they must have access to market information, good infrastructure, fertilizer, subsidies, modern science techniques. All these would go a long way not only to boost productivity but also quality and eventually move away from the poverty line.
Using the StataIC13 version, my results predict a rise in farm income and therefore alleviating rural poverty.