- Digital solutions offer sustainable food security options for Africa.
- African governments must invest in agri-tech to boost productivity.
- Kenya’s Shamba Shape Up cited as a viable agri-tech solution.
Agriculture digital solutions have the power to transform agri-food systems in emerging markets by bringing efficiency across all value chains.
“Technology, when applied to agriculture, results in higher income for farmers, increased output, and improved food security…these are among the benefits of utilizing digital tools in an agricultural setting,” said Prof. Mark Natoloi, in a recent research report that reviewed digital solutions for African farmers.
Governments could assist farmers and other agriculture stakeholders by deploying digital tools for important tasks, such as distributing subsidies to farmers or managing the inventories in storage facilities.
“When used as part of a national agricultural-transformation program, digital tools could help raise the incomes of smallholder farmers, increase crop output, and support food security,” reads the report in part.
As such, the sector pundit says governments can play a significant role in helping the private-sector and development partners as well, to invest in digital projects by enforcing supporting policy and backing data infrastructure investment.
There are tried and proven digital solutions that governments in Africa can deploy to support agricultural transformation, working with development partners and the private sector,” the professor insisted.
A big push towards applying digital solutions to almost each and every government sector (and for the private sector as well) was the COVID-19 crisis. The global pandemic forced many governments in emerging markets, including Africa, to turn to digital solutions in almost every sector, agriculture included.
Agri-tech digital solutions helped governments during the crisis, to access real-time data on the state of food security within their countries and their global suppliers especially during the crisis lockdowns.
“This has encouraged more data sharing between the private and public sectors …and there is potential to build on this momentum that could support a more systematic transformation of agri-food systems across the continent,” he explained.
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Agriculture digital solutions in Africa
It is reported that in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 400 digital agriculture solutions are currently in use. These are primarily applications used in financial services, that is, digital mobile payments.
Agriculture digital solutions also apply in creating market linkages, supply-chain management, and information services. However, sector experts warn that despite the abundance agriculture digital solutions, most of the innovators are struggling to scale up their solutions.
The report shows that, in Sub-Saharan Africa, most digital applications have less than 30 per cent active users. It is reported that only twenty applications (about 5 per cent) account for more than 80 per cent of farmer registrations and have achieved scale of more than one million farmers, and a good example is the 8028 Farmer Hotline, a government-run advisory service in Ethiopia.
“The availability of a digital agriculture solution does not guarantee smallholder farmer uptake and adoption,” cautions the professor who goes on to not that there is need for governments, and private sector, to take deliberate action to increase uptake of digital solutions among African farmers.
The report says, for farmers to want to use the available digital solutions, these applications must create value for the end users as an incentive to adopt them. For example, for farmers, the application should actually lead to improved crop yields, boost profits, or reduce input costs and crop loss, with such results, farmers will be willing to adopt such a digital solution.
Also, while the solutions are digital, they should be introduced in person, the expert advices. He says; “Farmers should receive some level of physical, in-person support. The most effective tools allow farmers to supplement access to agricultural knowledge from mobile phones with face-to-face interaction with extension officers, such as those from the Kenya-based agriculture-knowledge-sharing program Shamba Shape Up.”
To achieve overall scaling of digital solutions in agriculture, governments must play a central role , by providing the needed core infrastructure and regulations. They must invest in farmer registries, and created the needed base data that digital solutions innovators can use.
“Farmer registration is an expensive public good that few want to pay for yet many benefit from,” he pointed out. It is also government’s responsibility to address uneven digital access and low digital literacy among their populations. The report maintains that, for smallholder farmers, the problem starts with basic access to digital technologies.
“For most of sub-Saharan Africa, the average cost of an entry-level second-generation (2G) or third-generation (3G) wireless device accounts for more than 70 per cent of the monthly income of farmers, compared with 17 per cent in India.”
The report also points to the fact that, 3G network coverage in rural areas, where most farmers live, is very limited. Notably, only about 70 per cent of the urban population has access to 3G networks compared to about 40 per cent in rural areas.
The report goes on to acknowledge that there are non-internet-based approaches which include messaging services, but the researcher insists that; “internet-based solutions can provide a wealth of additional data that are critical to offering tailored products to farmers.”
Then there is the matter of a shortage of digital talent in the public sector and slow procurement processes that are designed to control public spending, makes difficult to adopt digital solutions that usually evolve rapidly.
“Prioritizing a set of digital interventions allows governments to address some external barriers such as focusing on areas where 3G access exists. This is a helpful way to sort through complex issues of data-sharing policies and guidelines, and ultimately start building the skills and capabilities to manage digital interventions at larger scales,” he summed up.
Shamba shape up, Kenya agri-tech digital solutions
According to USAID, millions of farmers in low-resource settings can benefit from information about farming techniques that will help them improve yields, make more efficient use of water, manage pests and increase farm income.
“To help farmers improve their agricultural food production, an edu-tainment television show called Shamba Shape Up was created. It reaches millions of farmers more quickly than traditional agriculture extension services for just $0.55 per farmer, much less than the cost of traditional training techniques,” USAID reports in its grant review of Kenya’s agritech digital solutions titled Shamba Shape Up: The Farm Makeover Show.
The report says, Shamba Shape Up currently reaches 12 million viewers after more than 10 seasons running in Kenya and has enabled millions of farmers to improve their operations in very practical and achievable ways.
The report says, after its success in Kenya, the show is now moving into Uganda to replicate its achievements. The report says; “By expanding into Uganda, Shamba ShapeUp expects to reach 1.25 million households and benefit nearly six million rural Ugandans.”
