An African woman with hoe in hand is the default symbol of agriculture in Africa, according to the late Calestous Juma, African academic and former Harvard Kennedy School professor. Mr. Juma used that image to convey the drudgery-filled farming that women on the continent face.

Women grow 70% of Africa’s food on smallholder farms, a task anchored by physical labour.

Now, with Africa’s population expected to double by 2050, the continent must ditch the hoe in favour of modern technology, which will complete the same tasks far more efficiently.

A transformation from small-scale subsistence farms to mechanised, more commercially viable farms is essential, say experts at the Ghana-based African Centre for Economic Transformation.

Currently, mechanisation levels on farms across Africa are very low, with the number of tractors in sub-Saharan Africa ranging from 1.3 per square kilometre in Rwanda to 43 per square kilometre in South Africa, compared with 128 per square kilometre in India and 116 per square kilometre in Brazil.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a UN specialized agency that champions efforts to defeat hunger, Africa overall has less than two tractors per 1,000 hectares of cropland. There are 10 tractors per 1,000 hectares in South Asia and Latin America.

Without mechanized agriculture, productivity suffers drastically, lowering farmers’ earnings, notes the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, an organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations that seeks to promote agricultural transformation and improve food security in Africa.

Africa currently spends a whopping $35 billion annually on food imports, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB), which projects that if the current trend continues, food imports could rise to $110 billion by 2050. Africa should be the breadbasket of the world, says AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina.

“Technologies to achieve Africa’s green revolution exist but are mostly just sitting on the shelves. The challenge is a lack of supportive policies to ensure that they are scaled up to reach millions of farmers,” Mr. Adesina adds.

The Maputo Declaration

African leaders in 2003 adopted the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, which requires countries to allocate at least 10% of public expenditure to agriculture with the goal of achieving 6% annual growth in the sector.

Yet 16 years later, only 13 countries have achieved at least 6% growth in the agricultural sector, stalling Africa’s dream of a food revolution. Those countries are Benin, Burundi, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

In addition to the Maputo Declaration, the Malabo Montpellier Panel (MMP), a group of African and international experts, recommended in 2014 that African countries develop national agricultural mechanization investment plans as a critical step to increasing productivity.

In a report in 2018 the MMP listed 12 African countries, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia as having demonstrated strong growth in mechanized agriculture and consequently achieved higher output.

Successful mechanization will be key to tackling major challenges on the continent, the report concludes, from spiraling food import costs to rampant rural unemployment. The report recommends using public-private partnerships to develop local machinery industries to ensure affordable and appropriate technology is in use. It also recommends incentivizing the private sector to invest in mechanization through tax waivers and smart subsidies.

Finally, thanks to advances in renewable energy and digital technology, Africa can leapfrog the stages of technological development other regions have had to undertake, making its mechanization process both swift and extremely lucrative, according to the report.

Dr. Katrin Glatzel, programme leader of the MMP, who is also a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, a US-based food research organisation, points out that over half the fruits and vegetables produced in sub-Saharan Africa are lost, mostly because of inefficient postharvest handling and lack of processing equipment.

Mechanization, Ms. Glatzel posits, is not only for tilling land, it is also for planting, harvesting, processing and storage of produce.

“Increased levels of mechanization will boost social and economic processes in both on-farm and off-farm roles in rural communities, through reducing drudgery of farm work and improving yields,” Ms. Glatzel tells Africa Renewal.

“Not only will mechanization result in increased employment, it will also improve land management and productivity as well as the quality of the crops that are produced,” she adds.

To achieve these goals, farmers in developing countries must spend more on fertilizer, seeds and agrochemicals, says the FAO.

Some laudable initiatives

Some private sector initiatives have stepped into the breach created by unsuccessful state- and donor-led efforts to promote mechanization.

In Nigeria, Hello Tractor, a technology start-up, is a quickly expanding Uber-like programme that gives farmers temporary access to tractors on demand.

Farmers can request a tractor via a text message to an agent, who aggregates requests. A tech platform pairs available tractors with jobs, and then tracks each piece of equipment as it’s used.

With a tractor, a field that might take 40 days to prepare for planting by hand can be prepped in eight hours. It’s also cheaper to rent a tractor than to hire farm workers, says Jehiel Oliver, the 35-year-old founder of Hello Tractor. “It seems counterintuitive in these markets with relatively low cost of labour, but paying a human being to do this is still much more expensive than a tractor.”

Labor is also increasingly hard to find as more Nigerians move to cities and existing farmers get older. Using a tractor can help farmers plant fields in time for rain. Because planting with a tractor is also more consistent than planting by hand, it can also improve yields.

In Zambia, Rent to Own, a nongovernmental organisation founded in 2010, leases equipment such as pumps, presses, tractors, shellers and bicycles to farmers.

One of the advantages of mechanised agriculture is that it can potentially attract youth to farms and put a dent in Africa’s high youth unemployment, which accounts for about 60% of total unemployed.

The example of Zimbabwe’s young agripreneurs is instructive. Three years ago, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) loaned Gift Chawara, Shepard Karwizi and Pinnot Karwizi a planter and a sheller with which they started a business.

Their company is now offering shelling and planting services to almost 150 family farms in Mwanga village, northwest of the capital Harare.

They had graduated from an agricultural mechanization training programme managed by CIMMYT. Last season, the trio earned about $7,000 just from shelling over 300 tons of maize, according to CIMMYT.

But these young Zimbabweans could be outliers, asserts Frédéric Baudron, a senior systems agronomist at CIMMYT, who finds mechanization by smallholder famers in Zimbabwe still low.

CIMMYT’s mechanization training programme is implemented under the Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification project and supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. The project has benefitted over a hundred young people from Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Such efforts, replicated across Africa, could push the frontiers of agricultural productivity. But governments need to increase investments in the sector.

It’s time for the continent to rethink the hoe.

About the Author

Busani Bafana is a versatile development journalist, based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Busani has more than 15 years of experience as a freelance journalist covering mainly environment, agriculture, food security, and climate change issues.

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How regenerative agriculture can increase Africa’s food production

Sustainable farming holds the key to economic prosperity

As global stakeholders work towards COP27, the next climate change conference, and accelerate efforts to confront the climate crisis, there has been increasing focus on “regenerative agriculture” – a term that is widely used but not always well understood.

How it is defined globally will have a major impact on how it is applied. To ensure that the global application accounts for African practices, it is imperative that we, as Africans, define regenerative agriculture for ourselves and share our local practices and indigenous knowledge with the world.

Regenerative agriculture describes an agriculture production system that aims to have lower, or even a net-positive, environmental impact. Regenerative practices thus avoid the key problems of highly industrialized agriculture production that damage soil health, including vast tracts of mono-cultivated land, chemical runoffs, overexploitation of water resources, and high chemical and hormonal residue levels in food.

How does this definition translate to the African context, particularly for the continent’s tens of millions of smallholder farmer families that are amongst the world’s most vulnerable to climate change?

“We believe that the solution lies in high-yielding, resilient, and adaptive practices (HYRAP) that constitute an African approach to climate-smart agriculture. High-yielding because the approach must contribute to feeding people and improving livelihoods in food systems. Resilient, because practices must be diversified to be able to bounce back and thrive under the the inevitable impacts of climate change,  and adaptive because weather patterns are increasingly unpredictable – an enormous challenge given the continent’s almost exclusive reliance on rainfall rather than irrigation”.

HYRAP is not new to Africa. African farmers already use these practices across the continent in soil systems, cropping systems, and integrated systems. Moving forward, focus should be placed on recognizing existence of these practices where they are in place, and further supporting their adoption and scaling.

Soil systems. Farmers are increasingly adopting no tilling and low tilling, where a crop is sown directly into soil that has been uncultivated or only slightly cultivated since the previous harvest. Some also incorporate crop residue as a mulch. Approximately 30% of South African farmers use this type of soil system.

Another example is water harvesting and irrigation. Although this practice is an effective way to reduce reliance on rain, application is hugely underexploited with only about 5% of agricultural land in Africa being irrigated. One approach that is becoming more prevalent is solar-powered irrigation systems, which have the benefit of delivering predictable amounts of water while avoiding the environmental challenges of conventional petrochemical powered systems.

Cropping systems. One prominent type of cropping system is crop rotation, the practice of growing different and diversified crops in succession on the same land to preserve the soil’s productive capacity and manage pest and disease.  The rotation of legumes such as beans with maize is one example of the remarkable practices that farmers have been using in various parts of Africa for centuries.  They understand that rotating crops improves soil quality, reduces pests and diseases, improves crop performance, and reduces dependency on pesticides. Similarly, intercropping (growing one crop next to another) improves farm biodiversity and soil quality, and helps farmers reduce their dependence on one crop.

Another common approach is to grow drought- and heat-resistant crops to maintain food and biomass production during drought conditions. Fonio millet, perhaps Africa’s oldest cultivated cereal crop, is grown in many parts of Western Africa, including Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Chad. This extremely fast-growing grain is highly resistant to drought conditions. It is also more nutrient-dense than alternative grains like wheat. In addition to providing food for human consumption, it is also a good source of fodder for livestock.

Integrated systems. This method deploys various mechanisms to control pests. Kenya, for example, has used pheromone traps to combat fruit flies in its mango crops. Other countries have made changes to their irrigation practices to reduce the chance of pest problems, such as avoiding too much water, which can increase root disease and weeds.

Agroforestry, which incorporates the cultivation of trees, is in use in Kenya and Zambia. It is also gaining traction across Africa through various initiatives such as the Grand African Savannah Green Up.

Increasing Adoption of HYRAP across Africa

The adoption of HYRAP has the potential to improve the livelihoods and resilience of farmers, processors, and consumers. It can also help restore natural systems which, in the case of Africa, are highly eroded from centuries of farming.

Pilots across the continent are actively exploring strategies that reward individual farmers who are implementing HYRAP with carbon finance enabled by mobile and fintech. Yet so far, small and mid-size food processing companies have generally been overlooked. These companies, which source from smallholder farmers and sell to African consumers, play an essential role in the food supply chain and deserve to be included in such initiatives.

It is also imperative that aggregators, logistics providers, processors, and distributors work across priority value chains to reduce post-harvest losses and invest in solutions that are both cost-effective and climate-friendly.

We recommend that public, private and social sector take the following actions to support the implementation of HYRAP.

Boost public spending that supports implementation of HYRAP

Tax incentives. National governments can demonstrate their commitment to HYRAP in their agricultural policies and budgets. This includes tax incentives for manufacturers, farmers, and processors who provide inputs for diverse, nutrient-dense, and sustainable foods. Governments could also impose taxes on imported food to encourage local production.

HYRAP extension. To enhance resilience and improve livelihoods, governments can enact  policies on HYRAP and promulgate them through the extension system. They can also codify local Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) that enhance resilience and natural outcomes of food production.

Subsidies. In addition, governments can create subsidies to reduce the cost of inputs needed for boosting the adoption of HYRAP across value chains. This is particularly important for heat, drought, and flood-tolerant seeds.

Facilitate cross-border and intercontinental trade of agricultural inputs and raw materials

To support production and inter-regional value chain development, it will be important for governments to ease the customs process, introducing one stop shops that recognize the perishable nature of agricultural goods.

Unlock access to capital

Priority sector lending. Banks can be required to direct higher portions of their loan books to agriculture and food systems investments. Priority sector lending in India, which requires banks to allocate 30% of their balance sheets to the rural economy, provides a good model to follow. This policy has been a significant contributor to growth of the Indian agriculture sector overall, with notable examples in ag-tech.

Blended finance. Philanthropic and donor capital can be used to reduce the risk of lending to agriculture and food companies, thereby enabling lower interest rates and borrowing costs. One such approach involves using first-loss guarantees (a mechanism where a third-party agrees to cover a certain amount of loss for lenders to reduce the risk) in conjunction with incentive payments. Aceli Africa, and the ABC Fund provide great examples.

This lower-cost capital should be even more accessible for farmers using HYRAP, and for food companies sourcing from them, to produce and distribute diverse, high-quality foods – those that are nutrient-dense, sustainable, affordable, and desirable. The companies providing the HYRAP inputs (such as solar powered irrigation, improved seeds and fertilizers, organic soil nutrients,  integrated pest management solutions and more) also need this financing to scale their operations.

Drive a shift in consumer demand.  Engaging media campaigns as well as purchasing incentives are needed to encourage consumers to purchase food that is HYRAP-compliant, thereby fueling demand and driving  sustainable change across priority value chains.  Such efforts can be supported by a variety of actors, including food companies, industry bodies, and governments.

The transition to HYRAP means a move to better productivity for small holder farmers in Africa—while addressing the needs of environmental sustainability.  Adopting HYRAP is not a choice – it is a necessity – if we truly wish to confront climate change.  The continent must become more self-sufficient and work towards not only food security but food abundance as well. We must ensure the adoption of practices that will deliver sufficient, sustainable, and nutritious food for Africa today – and for a future where the continent is a leading exporter of food worldwide.

The authors would like to thank Chris Mitchell and Biruh Demilew for their significant contributions to this piece.

About the authors

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is an expert on social innovation, agriculture and nutrition, entrepreneurship, and youth development, with over 25 years of international development experience. She is the founder of LEAP Africa, Nourishing Africa, and Changing Narratives Africa. She is also the co-founder of Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Ltd and AACE Foods. She sits on the Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and AGRA. Ndidi is the author of “Food Entrepreneurs in Africa: Scaling Resilient Agriculture Businesses” and “Social Innovation in Africa, a practical guide for scaling impact.”

Bogolo Kenewendo is a Global economist and Former Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry in Botswana. Kenewendo is also a vocal advocate for sustainable trade, gender equity and the protection of children’s rights.  She is also a member of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation and group on Financing for Development, a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council on Global Public Goods in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and a WEF Young Global Leader. She currently serves as the Africa Director & Special Advisor for UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, Managing Director of Kenewendo Advisory and Non-Resident Fellow with the Center for Global Development.

Zoë Karl-Waithaka is a Partner at BCG and co-leader of the firm’s African food system practice, with deep experience advising public, private, and social sector clients across the African continent. She focuses on growing African businesses and economies to achieve full potential and has led successful projects in countries including Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire and Congo Brazzaville, among others.

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Sustainable farming holds the key to economic prosperity

Agroecology is the future for Africa’s farming youth

Agriculture holds the key to economic transformation for Kenya and the East African region. However, the challenge lies in practising sustainable agriculture to unlock its true value from food production to agro-processing.  

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) takes place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, as a region and human race, we have many challenges ahead.

Some, are brought on by climate change, population pressure and political or financial instability within our economic and geopolitical space. Still, as a country and region, we have many unique advantages including political goodwill which, if used wisely, will allow us to build a robust agricultural economy.

Let me start by dealing with a favourite topic of mine, irrigation and water security. At Kakuzi, we have 19 dams which collect rainfall – allowing us to use the water for irrigation during dry season.

The critical part of our water security is not just the dam but the catchment itself.

If we don’t preserve the water catchment fields, our dams won’t fill with water, or they could silt up. In short, sustainable and secure irrigation requires that we sacrifice something, in this case, acres and acres of land, which act as water catchment areas.

These fields are preserved with natural habitat and managed to avoid soil erosion, bush clearance or overgrazing. In these fields, we must overcome the temptation to dig up the land and plant crops.

The next key challenge for agriculture after water is energy and not just the cost but also availability. In Kenya, our key export crop of tea requires energy to turn it from lush green leaves to dry tea; bear in mind that 4.5 kilos of green leaf converts to 1 kilo of black tea as the rest is water.  As we encourage farmers to grow more green tea leaves, we must also consider how to dry leaves.

In every tea-growing country, the energy for drying tea is a significant issue, whether it’s coal in India, gas in Bangladesh or fuel wood for us in East and Central Africa. Engineers have calculated the energy required, and it’s staggering. We must find sustainable solutions for this, as it’s not an easy or quick fix.

We all know the impact of energy prices on fertiliser, which is just another reason why we need to minimise our use wherever we can. Composting and mulching at Kakuzi to improve soil health and enhance soil fertility is a crucial component of our agricultural practices. Given that only 10 per cent of a macadamia nut is the edible kernel, a lot of biomass is available for conversion to energy or compost.

Teaching farmers sustainable agricultural techniques and when to apply different nutrients and in what quantities is part of what we do. Our online avocado academy ‘Kakuzi Avocademy’ is designed as an e-learning portal for farmers. Through the e-learning platform, we strive to advance shared prosperity values allowing smallholder farmers to learn and make the best crop husbandry decisions.

For many years now, I have been saying that we must explain how farmers can sell their fruit for the best value before we can tell them to plant an avocado tree.

Unfortunately, the fact is that the supply-demand equation for a perishable product such as avocados is a reality. Produce a product with limited marketability in a period of oversupply at your peril. This is precisely what happened in the avocado market earlier this year.

An oversupply of fruit in Europe through large Peruvian shipments and late European and North African production meant minimal marketing options for Kenyan smallholder fruit.

As I mentioned above, discerning customers choosing to eat a superfood such as macadamia or avocado want to know what they are eating and how it was produced. This is not because good Kenyan fruit is of substandard quality but simply because a lot of fruit from the country doesn’t have traceability credentials. If we as producers cannot demonstrate these traceability credentials, then high-value markets are limited and becoming more so.

We should also avoid the trap of thinking that emerging markets in the far east are less stringent than our traditional European markets. Sending substandard fruit to an emerging market can only depress demand, not enhance it.

Further up in the Rift Valley in the tea fields of Nandi and beyond, agricultural interest, mainly crop diversification, is also rising. The number of people seeking advice on avocado and macadamia potential in the region predominantly known for tea is growing.

Undoubtedly, this is the best time to get on the agribusiness side of things. As the name suggests, agribusiness means agricultural production for consumption and sale to raise much-needed financial resources. Like any other business, Agri-preneurs must carefully consider profit and loss fundamentals.

Considering profit and loss means engaging the investing community in the agricultural space to appreciate the role of credit access, mechanisation, technology and human resource management for efficiency.

Having been on the agricultural front my entire life, I can attest to this field-based industry’s value and potential to power rapid economic transformation. Kakuzi is an example of a leading agribusiness firm involved in commercial agricultural endeavours, including livestock rearing and agroforestry beyond our renowned avocado and macadamia production.

In Kenya, the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda 2022 – 2027 rightly notes that the agricultural sector has the highest growth multiplier effect on other economic sectors due to strong backward and forward linkages. There can be no denying that agriculture is our most globally competitive sector but getting it right is complex. Patience, long-term thinking and getting the fundamentals of sustainability, quality and traceability correct is the key.

Sometimes numbers tell the value of an agricultural enterprise better. For example, last year, notwithstanding the challenges of an “OFF” year cycle, Kakuzi PLC exported  Sh94 million worth of HASS avocados for our smallholder farmers. The previous ON-year cycle had seen us ship HASS Avocado cartons worth Sh152. 2 million for smallholder farmers.

In this venture geared at supporting smallholder farmers access quality international markets, we made payouts amounting to more than Sh31.4 million for the smallholder farmers from Kakuzi’s local community in Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Meru and Trans-Nzoia counties.

This is but one of the proof points that agribusiness is a viable economic avenue that can empower our farmers if we do it correctly.

However, we must remain alive to the vagaries of climate change as a risk factor to agricultural production and work towards building resilience.

Chris Flowers is the Kakuzi Kenya Managing Director. The company trades on both the Nairobi and London Stock Exchange, it engage in the cultivation, manufacture and marketing of a variety of agricultural products.  

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A Climate of Optimism: Empowering farmers in Africa to farm smarter

Agroecology is the future for Africa’s farming youth

By Simon Bukenya 

Policy makers and leaders in Africa are starting to recognise importance of involving youth in Africa’s agricultural future.

This is a commendable and a much-needed call to action, given the significance of agriculture to Africa’s economic development and the growing challenge of feeding its rapidly expanding population.

However, officials seem to have focused exclusively on industrial agriculture, which is not necessarily the best option, given its immense contribution to climate change and the health crisis.

Industrial agriculture is an agricultural production system characterized by intensive use of advanced technologies such as genetically modified crops, large-scale monoculture, and heavy use of chemical inputs. The focus is on maximizing productivity and reducing costs, while relying on economies of scale and centralized control.

In Africa, the adoption of industrial agriculture has been slow, but it is being encouraged by aid agencies, international organizations, and governments in the hope that it will increase productivity and reduce poverty.

However, this is unlikely to happen, for a number of reasons. One is that Africa is not a homogeneous region, and the agricultural systems that are appropriate for one country may not be appropriate for another.

As well, climate change is having significant impacts on agriculture and food production. As weather patterns become increasingly unpredictable, it’s becoming more difficult for farmers to successfully and reliably grow crops.

Hybrid seeds that have been imported from other regions can be ill-suited to local growing conditions and are often more vulnerable to disease, pests, and weather extremes.

By using locally adapted seeds and a more diverse range of crops, farmers are better equipped to withstand changing weather conditions and produce a more reliable harvest.

This type of nature-friendly farming can help to reduce the risk of crop failure and protect farmers from financial losses, which is becoming increasingly important in the face of climate change.

Industrial agriculture does not provide sustainable solutions to the climate crisis and to Africa’s failing food systems. The intensive use of chemicals and energy inputs is contributing to environmental degradation and climate change, which will make it increasingly difficult for farmers to grow crops in the future.

The degradation of soil quality, loss of biodiversity, and increased salinity in water resources will make it more challenging for farmers to grow food in the future.

Industrial agriculture also is not the most profitable option for young people who want to make a career in agriculture. The high cost of inputs and the dependence on capital, energy, and chemicals make it difficult for African farmers to succeed.

Agroecology as a holistic, diverse and sustainable approach is more appropriate.

Agroecological farming, on the other hand, is a more suitable approach to adapting to the effects of climate change. This approach focuses on the use of environmentally friendly inputs and methods that promote sustainable agriculture.

Agroecology encourages the use of natural fertilizers, crop rotation, and other methods that improve soil health, protect biodiversity, and reduce the dependence on costly inputs.

It is important to note that Africa has a long history of agroecological farming, where farmers have used traditional knowledge and local resources to produce food in an environmentally sustainable way.

This approach to agriculture recognizes the interconnectedness of the natural environment and human society and seeks to develop farming systems that are in harmony with nature.

Agroecological farming is characterized by the use of local inputs, such as organic matter and natural pest control methods, and the promotion of biodiversity.

The result is a more sustainable, resilient, and productive system that is better suited to Africa’s future.

To make agroecology a more attractive option for young people, it is necessary to invest in education and training programs that promote agroecological methods and help young people to develop the skills they need to succeed in this sector.

Additionally, the government needs to provide support to young farmers in the form of loans, subsidies, and other forms of assistance.

By providing young people with the tools and support they need, it will be possible to create a new generation of young farmers who are passionate about agriculture and who are committed to protecting the environment and providing food for their communities.

Simon Bukenya is a programme officer for the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).

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A Climate of Optimism: Empowering farmers in Africa to farm smarter

African Farmers Need Access to Synthetic Fertilizer Now

COP27 may take place against a different news background this year, given the war in the Ukraine and the subsequent fuel crisis in Europe, but the agenda has not changed.

With global temperatures rising to record-breaking levels, the need for meaningful progress at this year’s UN climate conference has never been greater.

Across Africa, the accelerating climate emergency is jeopardising food security, driving more people into hunger and starvation. As the Horn of Africa continues to battle a four-year long drought, one person dies of hunger every 36 seconds.

Although the African continent contributes the least to climate change, it will be disproportionately affected by the effects. By 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization reported that around 346.4 million Africans suffered from severe food insecurity, while an additional 452 million endured moderate food insecurity. Yet, by 2050, the population of Africa is expected to double in size.

At this point, the continent is likely to be unable to sustain food production for its own people, let alone export for profit.

From reducing the use of fertiliser to increasing profit margins, technology can play a central role in boosting the resilience, productivity and sustainability of our food systems.

A recent survey, conducted by Savanta Comres and commissioned by Vodafone, estimates that 94% of farmers in Africa surveyed across Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Egypt said that recent droughts had impacted the viability of their farm; in Egypt and Kenya, this figure rose to almost 100%.

Despite these challenges, the survey found that pockets of farmers in Africa were optimistic about the future. To a large extent, this optimism is rooted in the potential offered by digital farming technology. From reducing the use of fertiliser to increasing profit margins, technology can play a central role in boosting the resilience, productivity and sustainability of our food systems.

Many of these farmers said that digital technology could help farming succeed in the future and they intended to invest more. The research also found that some of these farmers are already employing digital tools to help reduce their water usage and to improve soil health among other uses.

This kind of technology adoption is key to both economic development and the mitigation of climate change for farmers in Africa. Connected Farmer (developed by tech start-up Mezzanine with the support and scale of Vodacom) serves as a prime example of this. The digital platform allows small-holder farmers to engage with a broader customer base, seek advice, access important information and even secure credit.

Meanwhile in South Africa, Vodacom’s Women Farmers Programme is making agriculture more accessible and profitable for women by teaching them how to use apps to connect to potential customers and unlock enormous economic opportunity.

In Kenya, DigiFarm leverages mobile and digital technology to offer farmers one-stop access to a suite of products, including financial and credit services, quality farm products and customised information on farming best practices, all from the most basic mobile phone. Vodacom Tanzania’s M-Kulima platform provides a digital marketplace where farmers can list their produce, enabling them to connect directly with buyers without any need for an intermediary. And in Egypt, the venue for this year’s iteration of COP27, Vodafone is empowering local communities through agricultural guidance services via mobile.

We all have a responsibility to ensure that farmers in Africa are supported to adopt digital technology. How can we go about it?

However, despite the clear benefits of technology in Africa’s farming sector—and farmers’ enthusiasm for it—they face significant barriers. The cost and availability of devices, poor mobile coverage or fixed connectivity, and a lack of digital skills impede adoption. Farmers in Africa want help and support from the government. However, it’s not just about money: they are also calling for training on how to use digital solutions, and better mobile and fixed internet connectivity.

We all have a responsibility to ensure that farmers in Africa are supported to adopt digital technology. How can we go about it?

We need to ensure access to low-cost digital devices and smartphones to drive innovative, resilient and climate-proof farming in Africa. With this in mind, policymakers should consider reducing or removing import duties and taxes to accelerate smartphone adoption in Africa, which would support economic inclusion of many including farming communities.

At the same time, policy and regulatory reforms must incentivise investment in critical digital infrastructure to ensure that farmers receive the connectivity they so desperately need. Governments should also prioritise reliable network coverage and ubiquitous digital infrastructure to allow for efficient data transmission.

It is critical that we get technology in the hands of farmers in Africa to ensure they are well placed to face [the] existential threat [of climate change].

Finally, we must transform restrictive regulatory policies and practices around digital, cloud and data services. These hamper the growth of Africa’s digital economy. By creating an enabling regulatory environment that supports the secure flow of data between countries through innovations like cloud computing, farmers will have the opportunity to access the critical agricultural insights they need to farm more effectively.

The war in the Ukraine and disruption caused by COVID-19 have exacerbated an already dire food security picture. But the underlying and long-term threat remains—climate change. It is critical that we get technology in the hands of farmers in Africa to ensure they are well placed to face this existential threat. A coherent policy platform implemented by governments and industry can help farmers create an innovative, climate-proof farming sector in Africa. If we do that, we can help ensure long-term food security across the African continent.

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Megatrends shaping African food systems

African agriculture is ready for a digital revolution

About the Author

Shameel Joosub

CEO, Vodacom Group

After a dark 2020, a new year has brought new hope. In Africa, where up to 40 million more people were driven into extreme poverty and the continent experienced its first recession in 25 years, a brighter future beckons as the economy is forecast to return to growth this year.

Africa now has an opportunity to reset its economic compass. To build back not just better, but greener. Particularly as the next crisis—climate change—is already upon us.

Africa’s food systems must be made more resilient to future shocks such as floods, droughts, and disease. Urgent and sustainable increases in food production are needed to reduce reliance on food imports and reduce poverty, and this is where digital services come into play.

With mobile phone ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa alone expected to reach half a billion this year, digital services offered via text messaging can reach even the most remote village. And at least one-fifth of these phones also have smart features, meaning they can connect to the internet.

We can already see how digital services drive prosperity locally and nationally. In Uganda, SMS services that promote market price awareness have lifted the price farmers receive for bananas by 36 percent, beans by 16.5 percent, maize by 17 percent, and coffee by 19 percent. In Ghana, services that cut out the middleman have lifted the price for maize by 10 percent and groundnuts by 7 percent.

But digital services don’t just raise farmgate prices, they are the gateway to farm loans, crop insurance, and greater economic security, which in turn enables farmers to increase their resilience to climate change—by experimenting with new, drought-resistant crops, for example, or innovative farming methods.

Text messages with weather reports help farmers make better decisions about when and what to plant, and when to harvest.

In Niger, a phone-based education program has improved crop diversity, with more farmers likely to grow the cash crop okra, while an advisory service in Ethiopia helped increase wheat production from one ton to three tons per hectare.

The data footprints phone users create can also be analyzed to help assess risk when it comes to offering loans, making credit cheaper and more accessible.

Phones and digital services also speed up the spread of information through social networks, helping farmers learn about new drought-resistant crops or services that can increase productivity. Free-to-use mobile phone-based app WeFarm, for example, has already helped more than 2.4 million farmers find certified suppliers of quality seeds at fair prices. They can also connect farmers to internet-based services.

Examples of digital innovation abound, sometimes across borders. In Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria, equipment-sharing platform Hello Tractor is helping farmers rent machinery by the day or even hour, while in Ethiopia, AfriScout, run by the non-government organization Project Concern International with the World Food Programme and the Ministry for Agriculture, provides satellite images of water supplies and crops every 10 days so problems can be spotted quickly to aid remedial action.

Transforming food systems digitally has demonstrably excellent results: the African Development Bank, which has allocated over half of its climate financing to adaptation since 2019, has already helped 19 million farmers in 27 countries to lift yields by an average 60 percent through applying digital technology, for example.

This is why the Global Center on Adaptation and the African Development Bank have launched the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) to mobilize $25 billion to scale up and accelerate innovative climate-change adaptation across Africa.

Once developed, the digital nature of these services often makes such projects easy to replicate elsewhere and scale, even across large rural areas with little existing infrastructure.

Further, adaptation projects are proven to be highly cost-effective, often delivering value many times the original investment and so helping African economies grow faster and create many more much-needed jobs.

This makes it imperative that the global resolve to rebuild economies in the wake of Covid-19 is harnessed in the most effective way. We must not simply replicate the mistakes of the past. We must build back stronger, with a more resilient and climate-smart focus.

Funding and promoting disruptive business models in which digital technologies are embedded to increase productivity without using more land or more water will create a triple win: increased production, a more resilient climate and more empowered farmers.

We have the means and the technical capability to put Africa well on the way to achieving food self-sufficiency and greater climate resilience. In doing so, we can help millions move out of food poverty. We must not squander this opportunity to create truly historic and lasting change.

Akinwumi Adesina is president of the African Development Bank. Patrick Verkooijen is CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation.

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Time to reset agriculture’s relationship with nature in Africa

Revitalizing African agriculture: Time for bold action

Jeff Worden, Alice Ruhweza

Nature and food are both central to Africa’s future. Natural capital provides up to 50% of total wealth in most African countries and up to 70% of the African population is dependent on nature for their livelihoods.

Unsustainable agricultural practices are already the biggest threat to Africa’s natural capital, but there is a clear need to increase food availability as 2 out of 3 of the world’s acutely food insecure population is in Africa.

Encouragingly, Africa is estimated to be home to 60% of the world’s remaining arable land, but expanding into it creates many additional threats to nature. As global and regional populations grow, this land will be at the forefront of the tension between balancing short-term food production and long-term investment in natural capital.

Sustainably feeding a growing population is not just about producing more food, it is about producing it differently and better.

The footprint of farming has been growing across Africa, bringing the continent to a crossroads. The first road leads us towards conflict between people and the planet; while the second puts us on the path to enriching Africa without impoverishing nature. This path needs us to reset our relationship with nature and to rethink, refresh, and reimagine agriculture in Africa. The continent is where crops and conservation meet, where farmers herding cattle walk on the same trails used by lions, gazelles, rhinos, and elephants.

Reimagining Africa’s food future

At the World Wide Fund for Nature, or WWF, we are calling for a reimagining of Africa’s food future. Instead of conflict between agriculture and conservation, we need a food system that has people and nature at its center.

Healthy and nutritious diets for all is one of the most pressing challenges Africa faces. Currently, Africa is a net food importer, bringing in $10-15 billion worth of agricultural products more than those exported. But every $1 billion spent on food imports is “equivalent to the annual income of 334,000 farming households, representing 670,000 on-farm jobs and 200,000 off-farm jobs.” The increasing reliance on food imports is contributing to rural poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity, with 1 in 5 people remaining hungry in Africa.

But simply expanding or intensifying production is not the answer to addressing Africa’s food insecurity. Already, more than one-third of Africa’s land is used for agriculture. Intensifying activity on this land, by increasing chemical inputs to increase yields, will degrade soils and, in the long-term, reduce productivity, necessitating expansion.

Bringing new land into agricultural production, whether in response to degradation or a desire to increase area under production, also has its challenges. Agricultural expansion often occurs in land less suited to farming and more vulnerable to degradation, quickly threatening productivity gains.

Similarly, expansion frequently leads to the loss of critical habitat, fragmenting ecosystems, disrupting the movement of wildlife, and threatening valuable ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, pollinators, and water retention — undermining the long-term productivity of agriculture in the area and exacerbating human-wildlife conflict.

Landscape-based approaches, including a shift away from maximizing production at the expense of nature to farming with biodiversity to achieve nature-positive production at scale, are the only way to successfully increase agricultural production while preserving nature and mitigating climate change.

Landscape approaches, which provide a framework for integrating diverse land-uses across large spatial scales, are particularly important in Africa’s biodiversity-rich agricultural landscapes where the paths of people and wildlife, nature, and agriculture are intimately intertwined.

A systems approach, such as that in the Kavango-Zambezi, or KAZA, a transfrontier conservation area comprising an area roughly the size of France, enables planners and decision-makers to look beyond the immediate context of the field or grazing area to balance the needs of agriculture, infrastructure, settlements, and nature.

It also facilitates investments in critical components of a sustainable food system, including safe drinking water, good sanitation, education, gender equality, and access to finance for small-scale farmers. In brief, landscape approaches support policies and practices that are good for both human and environmental health.

About Authors

Alice Ruhweza

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