Agricultural digitization could address Africa's food insecurity

As Sub-Saharan Africa gears toward addressing perennial food insecurity that has left millions at the verge of starvation, a new report found that digital transformation of the food and agriculture sector could double or even triple the region's current agricultural productivity.

The report, co-published by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Telecommunication Union, said the goal can be achieved through tackling existing barriers, such as limited infrastructure in rural areas.

This is in addition to insufficient funding for agriculture, inadequate investment in research, development, agro-innovation and agricultural entrepreneurship.

Dubbed Status of Digital Agriculture in 47 Sub-Saharan African Countries, the report said Sub-Saharan Africa is uniquely positioned to double its current agricultural productivity, owing to its largest area of arable uncultivated land, a youthful population of approximately 60 percent and vast natural resources.

"Such an increase in agricultural productivity would help lift more than 400 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa who live on $1.9 or less a day out of extreme poverty and improve the livelihood of approximately 250 million smallholder farmers and pastoralists in the region," said the report.

However, most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa remains unconnected with about one-third of the population still out of reach of mobile broadband signals. Moreover, only 28 percent of the population has any access to the internet.

To foster and facilitate the adoption of digital agriculture, the report proposes enhancing of digital infrastructure to foster the uptake of digital technologies in agriculture, especially in rural communities.

It also proposes development of national digital agriculture strategies and policies that are aligned to the regional objectives that spur growth and focus on digital agriculture.

This is in addition to developing digital platforms for agriculture that provide value added services for farmers such as market prices and weather-based services.

edithmutethya@chinadaily.com.cn