Africa’s economic expansion can be guaranteed if it maximises the opportunities of digital agriculture.
Using Drones, satellites, geographic information systems, weather stations and advanced analytics could become game-changers.
These are findings based on the joint Digital Agricultural Profiles carried out by the African Development Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CGIAR in three countries.
The countries are Ivory Coast, Rwanda and South Africa.
The series is based on the concept of the Climate-Smart Agriculture country profiles developed by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.
The methodology was designed in close collaboration with the World Bank Group.
“The future of agriculture is data-enabled. Conventional approaches to food production are no longer able to keep up with Africa’s fast growing food systems demands and the impact of climate change on agriculture. Technological innovations and digitalization offer an opportunity to transform African agriculture to produce higher yields, increase value addition and ensure more nutritious foods on a wider scale.”
Martin Fregene, Director for Agriculture and Agro-industry (AfDB)
Findings
Some key aspects of the findings include examining national digital technology and the policy landscape, user demands along the value chain and available digital agriculture services and applications.
The profiles also examine the main barriers to adoption as well as the digital technologies with the greatest potential to transform the sector.
The Digital Agriculture Profiles are part of the African Development Bank’s Digital Agriculture Flagship. Profiles have also been produced for countries such as Argentina, Grenada, Turkey, Kenya and Vietnam, with the World Bank.