Diplomatist Magazine Africa Day Special 2018 | Page 35

ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
against a predetermined schedule. By collecting
real-time data on weather, soil, crop maturity,
and equipment, farmers can make informed
decisions. This is called precision agriculture
- using exactly the right amount of inputs at
the right time and through the right means.
In India (and also in Africa), where most
of the farm holdings are small, precision
agriculture mainly provides precise application
of agricultural inputs based on soil, weather and
crop requirements to maximise productivity,
quality, and profi tability. There are various
types of ICT tools that can be used to provide
information to end users, such as web-based
information systems, SMS-based services,
mobile apps, and even directly through
telephones. For example, the Indian Farmers
Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO), a well-known
farmer cooperative organisation, has created
the ‘IFFCO Kisan’ app which helps Indian
farmers make informed decisions by accessing
customised agricultural information on market
prices, weather forecast, latest agricultural
advisories, farming best practices/tips, animal
husbandry/horticulture expert advice and all
agriculture-related news and recent government
schemes.
Robotics in Agriculture
Africa has the possibility and scope of
experiencing a leap-frog approach in modern
agriculture. Robotics in agriculture is one
such technology. It is a subset of the precision
farming set of technologies used in every
stage of crop yielding from soil assessment
to ploughing/ seeding to harvesting and
packaging. The stages include usage of
various types of robots (including drones) to
increase overall productivity. The advantage
of using agricultural robots is that they are
capable of collecting crop and soil samples
because they are small in size, which allows
them to be able to accumulate data close to the
crops with the equipped cameras and sensors.
They are also capable of mowing, spraying
pesticides, fi nding diseases or parasites, and
performing mechanical weeding. The benefi ts
of automisation and mechanisation can be seen
spreading to crops like tomatoes, peppers,
strawberries, etc., thus making them more
Marketing
agriculture
produce
effi ciently
becomes
important
not only for
expansion of
the size of
the market
but also for
transfer of
appropriate
price signals.
affordable; dramatically reduced loss of soil to
erosion; reduction of agriculture’s contribution
to CO2 production and reversal of the loss of
soil carbon.
For the society at a large, where drone and
robotic technology is experiencing an explosive
growth, there is a need for a participatory
approach to educating the community about the
use and benefi ts of these technologies. The use
of these tools can bring about higher production
and provide a defi nite method for systematic
farming across the globe.
A large part of the African population is
engaged in subsistence farming and could
be brought into the mainstream production
through structured interventions like land
reforms, mechanisation, etc. This would help in
ameliorating poverty levels faster given that the
agricultural sector consists mostly of smallholder
farmers, the majority of which are women. With
higher agricultural productivity; gender-equal
access to land, seed, and fertiliser; and overall
better performance in rural economies, growth
will reach the most disadvantaged. Some of
the intercut challenges in African agriculture
have been highlighted which give way to quite
a huge headroom of opportunity for investing
in African agriculture. 
Reference:
https://www.eximbankindia.in/Assets/
Dynamic/PDF/Publication Resources/
ResearchPapers/71fi le.pdf
*The author is Business Editor at
Diplomatist magazine.
2018 • Africa Day Special • 31