Digital Agriculture in Africa Holds the Key to Lifting 400m People Out of Poverty

Digital agriculture in African countries holds an enormous potential that could lift over 400 million people out of extreme poverty and improve the livelihood of approximately 250 million smallholder farmers and pastoralists.

Unlocking this potential, however, depends on the region’s digital adoption. It requires a substantive digital transformation of the agriculture sector through improved infrastructure and increased access to and use of digital technologies for agriculture.

For instance, coastal countries such as Kenya benefit from fast internet, thanks to undersea cables, and 4G mobile networks that are expanding rapidly across the continent. They provide attractive opportunities for a buzzing digital economy.

Despite such developments, however, much of sub-Saharan Africa remains unconnected – about one-third of the population is still out of reach of mobile broadband signals, and only 28 percent has any access to the internet. This has serious implications for the local agricultural sector.

A new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) offers one of the most comprehensive overviews to date on the status of digitalization in the region, focusing on digital agriculture transformation.

The report states that leveraging digital technologies in sub-Saharan Africa will not only contribute to the development of national digital economies but also accelerate the competitiveness of the agriculture sector of the region.

“Agriculture modernization and rural transformation provide real opportunities for maximum impact on growth and shared prosperity for countries in the Africa region. Digitalization helps maximize the benefits digital technologies can bring in transforming societies, improving livelihoods through better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind,” said Abebe Haile-Gabriel, FAO’s Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa.

Nevertheless, the untapped potential requires tackling existing barriers, such as limited infrastructure in rural areas, insufficient funding for agriculture, inadequate investment in research and development, agro-innovation, and agricultural entrepreneurship.

Taking stock of the status quo and identifying such obstacles can go a long way in helping policymakers realize this untapped potential.

“There is an urgent need to invest in last-mile connectivity to strengthen digital infrastructure generally and enable the development of inclusive digital agriculture strategies to advance agricultural transformation in Africa,” said Anne-Rachel Inné, ITU’s Regional Director for Africa.

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In Kenya, for instance, the digital ecosystem has seen a proliferation of digital solutions designed to improve agriculture across value chains. The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) in 2018 during the East African Farmers Digital Conference launched 14 agribusiness apps to support farmers.

However, to date, several digital solutions and innovations in agriculture have sprouted across the ecosystem from the capital city. Examples from the agriculture sector include Twiga Foods. Founded in 2013, this mobile-based food delivery firm links farmers and vendors to fair and trusted markets.

WeFarm is a farmer-to-farmer digital network that allows farmers to solve problems, share ideas, and spread innovation through a free SMS platform.

Among other innovations in the country, Kenya’s private sector also has innovation labs, including IBM Research-Africa. This entity seeks to drive innovation in key areas such as water, agriculture, transportation, healthcare, financial inclusion, education, energy, security, and e-government.

The US-based advisory service firm Cross-Boundary, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, runs the Mini-Grid Innovation Lab in Nairobi. MasterCard runs the MasterCard Lab for Financial Inclusion. It seeks financial agricultural solutions for smallholder farmers.

The biggest disadvantage is that while there are also national innovation programs and initiatives, they are mostly based in the capital city Nairobi, or have sprouted to other major cities.

Counterintuitively, these urban-centric initiatives seek to solve developmental problems that in most cases are experienced more profoundly by people in rural areas.

In the light of these significant improvements, it is worth noting that digital agriculture in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries, is still far from becoming sustainable.

A digital readiness index is necessary to assist countries in understanding and transforming their digital agriculture landscape toward policy formulation, targeted interventions, resource allocation, partnership establishment, and informed decision-making.