By Ndubuisi Ekekwe
For decades, African governments have tried policy methods to improve farm productivity. But most farmers are still only marginally improving their yields. In some Igbo communities in Nigeria, where I live, it’s common for farmers to plant according to the phases of the moon and attribute variability in their harvests to gods rather than to their own methods.
Foreign-made farm technologies remain unappealing to farmers in Africa who control, on average, 1.6 hectares of farmland. But this state of affairs is about to change. African entrepreneurs can now deliver solutions to small farms at cost models that farmers can afford.
For example, aerial images from satellites or drones, weather forecasts and soil sensors are making it possible to manage crop growth in real time. Automated systems provide early warnings of deviations from normal growth. Zenvus, a Nigerian precision farming start-up (full disclosure: I own it), measures and analyzes soil data, such as temperature, nutrients and vegetative health, to help farmers apply the right fertilizer and optimally irrigate their farms.
In Kenya the start-up UjuziKilimo uses big data to transform farmers into a knowledge-based community, with the goal of improving productivity through shared insights. SunCulture has made irrigation more affordable by selling drip irrigation kits that use solar energy to pump water from any source. FarmDrive connects unbanked and underserved smallholder farmers to credit, while helping financial institutions to increase their agricultural loan portfolios.
Kenyan start-up M-Farm and Cameroon’s AgroSpaces provide data to moderate price discrepancies between farmers and buyers, making it possible for farmers to earn more.
Ghana-based Farmerline and AgroCenta deploy mobile and Web technologies that bring farming advice, weather forecasts, market information and financial tips to farmers heretofore out of reach because of barriers in connectivity, literacy or language. Kenya’s Sokopepe uses text messaging and other Web tools to offer market information and farm record-management services.
While it’s still early to evaluate the impact of this digitization of farming systems in Africa, the trend is promising. Technology is making farming exciting for young people. As they see that developing mobile apps alone can’t feed Africa, many will turn to farming as a business.
Ndubuisi Ekekwe is a founder of the nonprofit African Institution of Technology and chairman of Fasmicro Group.