AFU
African Farming Union
🌍 Pan-African Agriculture Development Platform
About AFU
By Farmers, For Farmers
The African Farming Union is a vertically integrated agriculture development platform — By Farmers, For Farmers — functioning as a specialized agri dev bank and full-stack execution engine for African farmers. We finance the trade with SBLCs, Letters of Credit, and export pre-financing that unlock international markets.
20
Countries
247+
Active Members
$50B+
Market Opportunity
Our Story
The Problem
The Broken Cash Cycle
1
Inputs Needed
Capital arrives late
2
Yields Stay Low
No guaranteed buyers
3
Crops Sold Cheap
Or wasted entirely
4
Payments Delayed
Next season underfunded
5
Repeat
The cycle continues
Africa's agriculture doesn't fail at farming — it fails at finance + trade finance + offtake + processing.
How We Work
Operating Model
AFU operates as a portfolio of programs + projects across three tiers:
Tier A
Smallholder & SME
- Input bundles + seasonal working capital
- Training + compliance onboarding
- Guaranteed buy-back routes
Tier B
Commercial Farms
- Equipment finance, irrigation, high-value crop financing
- Structured contracts + processing access
- Trade finance (SBLCs, LCs) + export packaging
Tier C
Large Projects
- Project finance + infrastructure
- Anchor processing hubs
- Full corridor offtake contracts
Risk Management
Risk & How We Control It
Credit Risk
Offtake contracts, tranche releases, input-in-kind financing, aggregation control
Execution Risk
Commercial farmer operators + phased rollout
FX / Regulatory Risk
Structured trade routes + multi-country diversification
Commodity Price Risk
Processing/value-add + contract pricing mechanisms
Fraud / Leakage
Controlled procurement + field verification + audit trail
Giving Back
Our Promise to Africa
This isn't corporate CSR. This is personal. Ten percent of everything AFU earns goes straight back into the communities that grow the food. Because farming built us, and we owe it everything.
Women in Agriculture
Supporting women farmers with training, financing, and mentorship. Across Africa, women produce most of the food but receive a fraction of the support. We're changing that — one farmer, one loan, one season at a time.
Donate to This ProgramFeed a Child
Ensuring food reaches those who need it most. When our farmers harvest, a portion goes directly to feeding programs in local communities. No child should go hungry in a continent that can feed the world.
Donate to This ProgramYoung Farmers
Incubators, education, and entrepreneurship for the next generation. Africa's future belongs to its young people — we're giving them the tools, the training, and the capital to build farming businesses of their own.
Donate to This Program10%of AFU's profits go directly
into community programs
into community programs
Leadership
Founding Team
Built by farmers, for farmers. Our founding team brings hands-on commercial farming experience and deep technical expertise to transform African agriculture.
Board of Directors
Governing the strategic direction and fiduciary oversight of AFU
Peter Watson
CEO & Founder
African Farming Union
Commercial farmer and agricultural finance visionary with decades of hands-on experience across African markets. Background in commodity trading, farm management, and capital markets. Passionate about building infrastructure that helps real farmers thrive.
Duncan Kennaird
Co-Founder & Head of Commercial Agriculture
African Farming Union
Commercial farming expert with deep operational experience across Southern African agriculture. Specializes in livestock management, crop production systems, and building scalable farm operations from the ground up.
Join the Movement
Let's Grow Together
Whether you're a farmer, investor, partner, or sponsor — there's a place for you in the AFU family. Tell us your story.
Join Our Farming Family →