Rainfed agriculture produces much of the food consumed globally and by poor communities in developing countries. It accounts for more than 95% of farmed land in sub-Saharan Africa; 90% in Latin America; 75% in the Near East and North Africa; 65% in East Asia; and 60% in South Asia.
To increase agriculture output and commercialization in africa, specialists in climate adaption strategies are recommending the implementation of digital climate-smart solutions, including communication and information systems.
They contend that the continent’s continued reliance on rain-fed agriculture undermines the possibility of a sustainable future.
The specialists are the Senior Technical Cluster Leader and Innovations Systems Specialist, Forum for Agriculture Research Africa, Professor Wole Fantunbi, and Programme Lead, Food Security and Rural Wellbeing, Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) (FARA) Dr. Oluyede Ajayi, made the recommendation at the sideline of a two-day course on Digital Climate Advisory Services in West Africa.
The Global Centre on Adaptation, GCA, organized the training under the auspices of the Forum for Agriculture Research Africa, FARA in Accra.
It aims to increase the capacity of regional stakeholders to deploy digital climate adaption tools for farmers.
African farmers still rely heavily on rain to develop their farms, and are struggling with extreme weather conditions including droughts, floods, and windstorms as a result of weather patterns.
In Somalia, for example, 7.8 million people are suffering from severe food insecurity as a result of the country’s worst drought in 40 years.
According to the United Nations, between January and June 2022, 200 children were estimated to have have perished from malnutrition.
Dr. Ajayi claimed that while there are currently methods to address how climate change is affecting farmers’ activities, connecting those interventions to farmers have always been difficult.
He maintained that farmers must receive early warning systems from digital tools like climate information and advisory services, to enabling them to organize their actions.
Dr. Ajayi, noted that there are digital platforms that can assist farmers in easy access to markets after harvesting in order to lessen post-harvest losses.
‘These are instruments that can provide farmers with information in real time so they may make decisions about their farm operations that are well-informed. Informing farmers, for instance, that there would be a lot of rain over the next three days might prevent them from using as much fertilizer, he emphasized.
Professor Fantunbi, on his part observed that smallholder farmers in the area will continue to be at the whim of the weather unless the continent adopted digital climate solutions.
The lack of “significant investments” in infrastructure that facilitates access to and the use of digital devices in the agriculture sector, according to him, prevents farmers from enjoying the benefits of the available digital instruments.
Remote sensing is one aspect of agriculture where digitization is really helpful since it enables you to know exactly what to do when Drones are becoming beneficial.
Professor Fantunbi, stated that “efforts need to be focused on developing technology and the infrastructure that make drones available.
If we have a remote-powered little weeder that can work on a farmer’s field, the cost of labor and production would be decreased.”
For the Country Manager for the African Development Bank, Eyerusalem Fasika, farmers would need extra new tools to increase yields and get their products to market even while existing technologies, like improved seeds, will be crucial to satisfying Africa’s food needs.
Digital climate-smart solutions, according to her, facilitate scaling of actions, enhance efficiency, and might boost production by between 40% and 70%.
She stated that in order to support smallholder farmers throughout the entire agriculture value chain, it is crucial to create multi-stakeholder collaborations between the government, academia, and the commercial sector.
The lack of access to sophisticated technologies, according to the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Food, Agriculture, and Cocoa Affairs, John Osei Frimpong, is causing a gap in yields for farmers.
He therefore called on all to put the proper processes in place to ensure that the investments (in technology) are swiftly turned into measurable development benefits even in their short term.”
