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Dr Mmatlou Kalaba’s International Fresh Produce Association Cape Town conference presentation on the as yet little-understood Africa-wide free trade system drew much interest, coming as it did in the same week that Botswana’s closure of its borders to South African vegetables (a practice also followed by fellow Southern African Customs Union member Namibia to protect its domestic industry) made national headlines.

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Between now and 2040, almost every second person born worldwide will be African, and the continent will account for more than 60% of growth in the world’s working-age population. Africa has boundless potential. And yet the income gap between Africa and the rest of the world has been growing since the 1960s.

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Africa’s cattle feed production is a boom-and-bust cycle. Most of the continent’s grazing lands are lush and green in the rainy season, only to wither into dry scrublands in the dry season.

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African farmers fear being left alone in making sense of and applying environmental standards required by the European Union’s new food policy, said the voice of Kenya’s horticulture producers, who warned that without help, the new rules could jeopardise trade with Europe.

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A Russian proverb says: “You reap what you sow,” inevitably meaning that future consequences are shaped by our present actions.