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Africa must seize the
opportunity of the COVID-19 pandemic to deepen the digitalization of agricultural
value chains and transform the sector, speakers at a webinar jointly hosted by
the FAO Investment Centre and the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) said.
The webinar, held on 10 June, is
the first of a four-part series discussing transforming agriculture in Africa
through digitalization. It explored digital responses that can be quickly
deployed to address the disruptions to food systems, caused by COVID-19. It
also examined the requirements for digital transformation in agriculture on the
continent.
Nearly 500 people, representing
agri-tech, telecom, government agency implementers, policymakers, farmers and
development partners, participated. The panelists included Wuraola Jinadu,
Business Development Manager, Vodacom Business, Nigeria; Myriam Said, Digital
Adviser, Office of the Prime Minister, Ethiopia; Mao Yohannes, Agricultural Transformation Agency, Ethiopia;
Benito Eliasi, Programme Officer, Southern African Confederation of
Agricultural Unions, and Chris Lukolyo, Digital Country Lead, UN Capital
Development Fund, Uganda.
They identified potential
investments for the digital transformation of African agriculture during and
after COVID-19, ranging from digital profiling of value chain actors to mobile
payments and e-commerce. The participants also discussed the necessary policy
and regulatory frameworks for inclusiveness, scalability and viability,
including for data governance and protection, digital financial products,
digital ID systems, e-contracts and e-extension services. The meeting proposed
the bundling of digital services, agri-tech innovation challenges and open
systems to help build financially viable supply capacity.
“Efforts need to be catalysed on
both the policy and investment fronts for digitalization to help make agri-food
systems more productive, more inclusive and more sustainable in the
future,” FAO Investment Centre Director
Mohamed Manssouri, said
Before the COVID-19 crisis,
digital technologies were changing the global economy, and agri-food systems
were part of that transformation. “With COVID-19, this trend has accelerated,”
Manssouri noted.
Like elsewhere, the spread of
COVID-19 has disrupted agri-food systems across Africa. Key supply chains have
been interrupted, markets closed and movement restricted, resulting in
agricultural labor shortages. Farmers are missing planting seasons, while
agribusinesses are facing liquidity constraints.
Demand for catering has dwindled
and consumer preferences have shifted away from highly perishable foods, like
fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, to ones with longer shelf-lives.
“We must also use this wave of
interest to build digital platforms that facilitate linkages between value
chain actors at much-reduced transaction costs,” Martin Fregene, the Bank’s
Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industries, said.
As the pandemic gradually shifts
from an emergency response to recovery and resilience, there is an opportunity
to build back better in the agricultural sector, FAO Investment Officer Gerard
Sylvester said, noting that financial inclusion will be a game-changer in rural
communities.
“We need to ensure that costs
are not a barrier, that small-scale farmers can adopt and apply digital
advisory and other knowledge products and that the content is relevant,
localized and actionable.”
Ed Mabaya, Manager of the Bank’s
Agri-business Division, said that “population growth, coupled with the
expanding middle class, youth bulge, and changing diets could drive the value
of the African food market to $1 trillion by 2030.
The growth of digital,
data-driven and tech-enabled solutions can trigger a new green revolution for
Africa, addressing some of the challenges and constraints along the entire
value chain, from input supply to the consumer end, he noted.
In his closing remarks, Benjamin
Addom, Team Leader, ICT for Agriculture at the Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), noted that digitalisation is
critical for the agricultural sector due to the potential negative impact of
the health crisis on economic recovery and food security.
“We need to understand the
linkage between digital agriculture solutions and services with big data and
analytics, viable business models, and the enabling environment required to be
able to fully realise digitalisation for agriculture during recovery and sustainability,”
he said.
The African Development Bank
launched its Digital Agriculture flagship initiative at the Tokyo International
Conference on African Development in August 2019, with the aim of helping to
create an enabling environment to unlock digital solutions across Africa.
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