Over the last 20 years, ICT Update has followed and reported on the rapidly changing landscape in ICTs for agriculture and digitalisation of the sector. The definition of digitalisation for agriculture, according to The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report, 2018–2019, “is the use of digital technologies, innovations, and data to transform business models and practices across the agriculture value chain, including production, post-harvest handling, market access, finance and supply chain management.”
In this issue
The impacts of digitalisation
Over the last 20 years, ICT Update has followed and reported on the rapidly changing landscape in ICTs for agriculture and digitalisation of the sector. The definition of digitalisation for agriculture, according to "The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report, 2018-2019", “is the use of digital technologies, innovations, and data to transform business models and practices across the agriculture value chain, including production, postharvest handling, market access, finance and supply chain management".
Seeing is believing! Visualisation of CTA’s results
To demonstrate how CTA projects are matching the Centre’s corporate targets and to enhance project data integrity, consistency and accuracy, a results data management initiative has been launched.
GODAN Action: Digital capacity building
Increased availability of agricultural data could help overcome key challenges for the sector, however many stakeholders still struggle to access and interpret agri-data. GODAN’s Action project aims to tackle this issue.
Data4Ag impacts for farmers and for policy
CTA’s Data4Ag project has introduced digital solutions in Africa to assist farmers’ organisations in registering their members to offer targeted agricultural services. Whilst impacts from the field have been impressive, questions have been raised around the collection and use of farmer data, and the need for policy development.
Drone-based services taking off to transform Africa’s agriculture
Africa’s agriculture sector is being progressively transformed into a high-tech industry through digital services. Decisions are being based on real-time gathering and processing of data, feeding into increasingly effective decision support systems. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are an integral part of this digital revolution.
Ten key success drivers of young digital start-ups servicing the agri-food sector
by Ken Lohento
Ken Lohento, Senior ICT for Agriculture Programme Coordinator at CTA, discusses ten key strategies to help young digital ag-tech start-ups achieve ‘business success’.
The impact of data collection for farmer organisations
by Martine Koopman and Claudia Ayim
In Uganda, CTA has been working with the Igara Tea Factory to digitally profile their farmer members and enhance their data management practices. In this piece, the impact of these activities for the individual farmers, and the cooperative as a whole, is assessed.
Weather-based index insurance: a climate-smart agricultural solution for smallholder farmers
by Oluyede Ajayi and Mariam Kadzamira
Dr Oluyede Ajayi and Mariam Kadzamira, explain how CTA has been bundling weather-based index insurance with other services to increase the resilience of 140,000 smallholder households in Southern Africa to climatic changes.
Super platforms – going beyond bundling digital solutions
Solutions that bundle multiple digital agricultural services have the capacity to unlock the potential of smallholder farmers. However, emerging ‘super platforms’ are complex and their impacts need to be carefully assessed before widely promoted in Africa.
In this edition, which unfortunately will be the last, recent work of CTA in promoting digitalisation for agriculture is featured, as well as the associated impacts.
