Farmers Review Africa May/June 2017 Farmers Review Africa | Page 36
Supplement
How digital technology is
changing farming in Africa
According to the Food and Agriculture changes, shorter fallow periods, and rural- i n c re a s i ng ly afford abl e an d a c c e s s i bl e .
Organization of the United Nations, the world urban migration that deprives farming Entrepreneurs can now deliver solutions to small-
population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050, and to communities of young people. size African farms at cost models that farmers can
feed that number of people, global food ose that do look to leverage new technologies afford.
production will need to grow by 70%. For Africa, run into nancial issues. Foreign-made farm which is projected to be home to about 2 billion technologies remain unappealing to farmers in For example, aerial images from satellites or
people by then, farm productivity must Africa because they are cumbersome for those drones, weather forecasts, and soil sensors are
accelerate at a faster rate than the global average who control, on average, 1.6 hectares of making it possible to manage crop growth in real
to avoid continued mass hunger. farmland. time. Automated systems provide early warnings
While African governments have employed But this is about to change. African other factors.
if there are deviations from normal growth or
many policy instruments to improve farm entrepreneurs are now interested in how e following examples are cited aerial images
productivity, yields are still marginally farmers work and how they can help improve from satellites or drones, weather forecasts, and
improving. yields. e barrier of entry into farming soil sensors are making it possible to manage crop
e food challenges in Africa are multipronged: technology has dropped, as cloud computing, growth in real time. Practical examples used
e population is growing, but it is threatened by computing systems, connectivity, open-source include,
low farm productivity exacerbated by weather soware, and other digital tools have become
May - June 2017
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