New reports from AfDB, FAO, CGIAR showcase digital agriculture opportunities for Nigeria, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, S’Africa

…Time Nigeria brought on NIGCOMSAT-1

Ben Eguzozie, in Port Harcourt

Should Nigeria, continental economic giant, and countries like Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa deploy drones, satellites, geographic information systems, weather stations and advanced analytics, then they may just be on the way to providing solutions to Africa’s agricultural challenges, which has been bedevilled by droughts, inundations, flooding, no value-addition.

A new joint digital profile done by African Development Bank (AfDB, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), said, the above “are some of the most promising technologies for providing solutions to Africa’s agricultural challenges.”

“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,” said Martin Fregene, director for agriculture and agro-industry at the AfDB.

Clearly, agriculture in Africa today, potentially offers massive investments in climate-smart crops to build more resilient food systems, climate-resilient infrastructure and energy transition combine to offer investment potentials of between $130 billion and $170 billion, according to a recent report by AfDB.

Meanwhile, the continent faces the vagaries of climate change at the cost of between $7 billion and $15 billion – and could rise to $50 billion by 2040 according to the IMF.

The profiles, covering Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda and South Africa, map the challenges and opportunities to scale the adoption of innovative digital technologies in the agriculture sector. These include: 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.

Although Nigeria was not included in the digital profiling, the country could cash in on the lucrative opportunity from the report’s recommendations. Time it brought on its NIGCOMSAT-1, a Nigerian satellite ordered and built in China in 2004, which is Africa’s first communication satellite, and Nigeria’s second satellite. It was launched on 13 May 2007, aboard a Chinese Long March 3B carrier rocket, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China.

Fregene said, “the Digital Agriculture Profiles provide a snapshot of how a country is positioned in that transformational process.”

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 applications of digital technology in agriculture are diverse. For example, using satellite data, farmers can monitor crop health, soil quality and water and fertilizer usage. Sensors, automation and machine learning allow for the adaptation of more precise agricultural operations for specific locations and conditions. Digital payment systems, index insurance and mobile platforms help connect farmers to markets and financial services.

According to Mohamed Manssouri, FAO investment centre director: “Agriculture’s digital transformation is an exciting and fast-moving train, and we need to make sure that small-scale farmers, women and rural youth are able to benefit from these technologies. The profiles give international and national financing institutions, policy-makers and public and private investors a good and quick overview of a country’s current digital landscape, as well as the main constraints and opportunities for digital policies and solutions.”

The profile highlights showed that: in Rwanda, up to 85 per cent of rural consumers will have access to basic mobile phone services in the next five years.

For Côte d’Ivoire: access to digital technologies rose sharply in the last decade; nearly everyone in the working-age population now has mobile phone access, and nearly half of Ivorians use the internet.

South Africa, by far the continent’s country with vastly developed systems: precision agriculture is strongly adopted by large-scale commercial farmers; blockchain, barcoding and fleet tracking solutions offer unique benefits for the traceability of agricultural products.

The profiles also offer analysis on the future of digitalization. Project coordination was led by the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture’s technical community, the Data-Driven Agronomy Community of Practice, with contributions from researchers at the Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture).

“It is critical that all development partners join forces with governments, the private sector and non-state actors to accelerate agricultural digitalization and ultimately defeat hunger globally,” said Andy Jarvis, Associate Director General of the Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT and co-founder of the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture.

The digital agriculture profiles are part of the AfDB’s digital agriculture flagship. Profiles have also been produced for countries such as Argentina, Grenada, Turkey,