WILLAGRI
More than 30 million small African farms account for two-thirds of the continent’s production. These small-scale farmers face various uncertainties, often finding themselves victims due to a lack of data.
Confronted simultaneously with soil degradation and increasing food demand, they are required to improve their productivity. Smart agriculture solutions would be a lever of progress for them, enabling preventive actions to maintain productivity and monitor livestock health, plant growth, soil quality, weather forecasts, and more.
AgFunder’s latest report indicates growing investor interest in new technologies. In 2022, they invested $3.2 million in software and IoT (Internet of Things) applications for the agri-food sector. Most of this venture capital supported the Egyptian and South African agri-food systems.
The challenge is to deploy innovation in a dispersed agricultural landscape, comprised of actors who have limited access to digitization for various reasons, including a lack of digital literacy, limited internet coverage, and reduced financial capacity.
However, farmtech offers innovative and relevant solutions for the African market, such as Farm View, a satellite data-assisted field monitoring application, or Stable Food, an integrated system that combines irrigation as a service (IaaS), input supply, and contract arrangements.
Investors are urging governments to support the digitization of agriculture and provide necessary infrastructure, including communication networks.
Source: Agfundernews