TECHDIGEST – As part of its efforts and commitment to reinforce and foster the digital transformation of the agricultural sector to support food security in Africa, the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa CCIE said right policies, innovation, financing, and investment, Africa’s agriculture could be transformed into a powerhouse not only to feed a growing population but to create decent employment for millions of young people”.

Inuwa stated this during a public sector media webinar roundtable discussion, with the theme: “Digital Transformation for Food Security in Africa”.

The DG, who was represented by the Director of Information Technology Infrastructural Solutions (ITIS), Dr. Abdullahi Usman Gambo stated that digital agricultural transformation should be a priority on the policy agenda of African Governments in the quest to meet the challenges of food and nutrition, insecurity, climate change, youth unemployment, and overall economic growth, noting that it has been projected that the total worth of the African food industry will hit the $1 trillion mark by 2030.

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“Agricultural transformation remains one of Africa’s most pressing priorities but has been difficult to achieve. By all statistics, Africa needs to triple its current levels of agricultural productivity to meet the continent’s food and nutrition security. But we have the resources and potential to feed the whole world not just Africa while boosting the continent’s economic growth”.

The DG revealed that about 82 million hectares out of Nigeria’s total land area of 91 million hectares were found to be arable and that only about 42 percent of this cultivable area is farmed according to research.

He then advised that the untapped potential of the growing youth population which constitutes over 50 percent of the estimated 200 million population with about 200 million mobile subscribers, 150 million active internet subscription/users, and 42% broadband penetration could be a game-changer for the agriculture sector.

“In Nigeria, the importance of agriculture in boosting the economy, creating more jobs, reducing poverty, growing nutritious food to feed the population, exporting surplus, and safeguarding the country’s environment cannot be overstated. I am convinced that agriculture, agribusiness, and food sectors remain key pillars of Nigeria’s economy and will be essential to the country’s full recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and future food security”, he added.

Inuwa noted that technologies ranging from SMS, USSD, web, and mobile to the blockchain, robotics, geoinformation technologies, remote sensing technology, IoT, big data, analytics, AI, machine and deep learning among others, present a huge opportunity for Africa and in particular, Nigeria to change the narrative of low productivity, poor food quality, and food insecurity. There are a lot of use cases that present the potential of digital technologies, research, and innovations at addressing these challenges.

The DG avowed that NITDA in collaboration with relevant stakeholders had developed the Nigeria Digital Agriculture Strategy (NDAS) with a vision to make Nigeria one of the top three (3) most food-secure countries in Africa and the top 20 largest exporters of standard agricultural produce by 2030 through the use and application of digital technologies and innovations.

NDAS is at the heart of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) and the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) for agriculture transformation. NDEPS is the Federal Government’s Policy for accelerating digital transformation in every sector of the economy. NESP takes agriculture as a mainstay for economic recovery, diversification, and job creation after Covid-19 plunged the country into recession.

The plan proposed a mass agriculture programme to bring 20,000 to 100,000 hectares of new farmland under cultivation in every State of the Federation. The aim is to create 5 million job opportunities, directly and indirectly spanning the entire agricultural value chain, from ‘farm to table’. The policy is creating an enabling environment for the rapid deployment of digital solutions in our agri-food businesses, the DG said.

Inuwa also revealed that to implement the policy and plan, further digitise the agriculture sector, address obvious challenges, exploit the opportunities, create massive jobs, and accelerate economic diversification and growth, the Agency has come up with National Adopted Village for Smart Agriculture (NAVSA).

NAVSA is a technology and innovation-driven agricultural initiative aimed at addressing low agriculture productivity and other challenges. Agriculture financing and repayment difficulties are being addressed through the introduction of closed and open wallet systems on mobile payment platforms.

“NAVSA is designed to allow every ecosystem player to participate based on win-win business models to create far-reaching network effects and offer values that never existed before. The concept of an adopted village implies that a farmer will have to be adopted before having access to all the benefits the platform offers”, he explained.

He further noted that measures are in place to identify a farmer thereby solving problems peculiar to identity. “So far, we have adopted 765 farmers across 68 local government areas in 4 states and consequently, this has created 2,500 jobs. Our target is to have adopted farmers from all over the country”.

In her remarks, the country manager of Microsoft, Mrs. Ola Williams said agriculture is now the main driver of employment in Nigeria as such it is important to explore ways to make farming in Nigeria to become more profitable and to encourage more entrepreneurs to consider farming as viable means of livelihood.

She stated that Microsoft is in partnership with the private sector and NITDA to ensure leverage on all the platforms provided by NITDA in digitizing the agricultural sector.

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By Inyene Ibanga

TECH DIGEST – Agriculture has undergone rapid transformation, from the era of the industrial revolution, when farmers depended on manual labour to carry out their operations. Direct labour was deployed during the process of clearing the land, tilling the soil, planting the seeds, and eventual harvesting the crops.

Mechanical tools were later developed for farming as part of the evolution in agricultural practices. Machineries such as tractors, land mowers, burrowers, threshers, and sprayers are used in mechanised farming operations. These machines help to reduce manual labour and the use of crude implements.
Currently, agriculture is making tremendous contributions to the growth of national economies and development. This growth is becoming manifest through the disruptive impact of various cutting-edge technologies that are deployed into farming practices.

The integration of agriculture and technology into agriculture technology (agritech) is gradually becoming the reality in several emerging African economies like Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Kenya. Agritech innovations are being used to augment output and efficiency in agriculture.

In Nigeria, Agritech companies are offering digital innovations and solutions that cover the produce, products, services and applications within the agricultural value chain, from the farm to industry, where produce are processed for the final consumer.

There are several agritech start-ups/companies operating across the spectrum of the agriculture value chain. Some of them include Farmcrowdy; Groupfarma; Farmkart; Payfarmer; and FarmSponsor. Others are Kitovu Technology; Ewagric; Releaf; Fresh Direct Nigeria; Fresh Direct Nigeria and Babban Gona.

These agritech start-ups/companies are among those that have started offering digital solutions to address the challenges confronting smallholder farmers. They help to provide smallholder farmers’ access to financial services, improved seedlings, fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides, and equipment, as well as provide logistics and marketing services to farmers.

Agritech covers a wide range of technologies and applications, such as the use of drones; satellite photography and sensors; robots; temperature and moisture sensors; and GPS technologies.

Also, it involves weather forecasts; automated irrigation; light and heat control; intelligent software analysis for pest and disease prediction, soil management and biotech.

Essentially, agritech companies aim to use cutting edge technologies to, among other things, support rural and local farmers for increased yield production; and provide access/link and connect rural customers and producers in the agricultural market in order to accelerate Nigeria’s agricultural-based industrialisation.

Progress in the agricultural sector can be used as a standard for measuring a successful state or society and the capacity to feed its population. So, the level of productivity in agriculture, the capacity to feed the population and food security, are among the strong indicators of a thriving economy.
In fact, the rising level of food insecurity in Nigeria has compelled more smallholder farmers to leverage on new technologies to improve food production and become competitive in the agricultural market.

At a recent workshop for review of the National Digital Agriculture Strategy (NDAS), there was a renewed call for youth to leverage technologies and innovations and become more involved in agriculture.

Developed by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the NDAS is aimed at engendering digital-enabled agriculture and food industry. It is geared to building a vibrant digital agriculture sector that leverages technologies and innovations.

Consequently, digital innovations will attract young adults to build and invest in new digital business models across the agriculture value chain, create millions of jobs, increase productivity and profitability, and enhance the sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This means the country’s extremely energetic and creative youths would shift their attention from the quest for dwindling white collar jobs and become engaged in agricultural practices that are driven by sophisticated technologies and innovations.

As the leading driver of productivity, technology possesses the compelling capacity to attract more youths to productively venture into agricultural practices. Young people have a tendency to drift towards technology because they offer fresh and easier approaches and tech innovations to ease farm work.

From all indications, the deployment of emerging technology will drive youth inclusion into the agricultural sector. It will enable the youths to effectively monitor and manage natural resources, while also giving them (young producers) greater control over plant and animal production, processing, distribution, and storage.

With greater deployment of innovative digital tools and applications, youths will be in the vanguard of building greater efficiencies, safer growing conditions and safer foods for Nigeria’s booming population.

This reality is succinctly acknowledged by Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the Director-General of NITDA, in the following statement:

“This has become imperative as the population of Nigeria continues to grow with a large demographic of young adults, especially people migrating from the rural areas to the urban areas. It will make Nigeria a leading country in food security and exporter of standard agricultural products to the rest of the world.”

Partnership between agritech companies and mobile network operators (MNOs) will go a long way to drive the scale and build sustainable business models. Agritech companies are likely to gain more traction as the MNOs help attract investors and vital fundings.

Going forward, young tech enthusiasts should be challenged to come up with more agritech innovations to address those barriers to agriculture that are peculiar to certain regions of the country.

The collaboration between the Federal Ministries of Communications and Digital Economy and of Agriculture and Rural Development should be adequately empowered to ensure that the ‘Smart Agriculture’ initiative translates into a tangible increase in food production and economic growth.

Established agritech companies can create hubs where budding innovators, investors and start-ups have access to network and exchange ideas on innovations that have capacity to create disruptions in the agriculture.

Without doubt, the youth have a pivotal role to play in the current effort to position the country among leading agricultural-driven economies where technology is strategically deployed to ensure food security and industrialisation.

The country’s agricultural jigsaw puzzle may never be completed without the active participation of her teeming youth as a vital component for achieving our target of food sufficiency for domestic consumption, industrial raw materials and revenue earner through exportation.

Inyene Ibanga is Managing Editor, Techdigest magazine, Wuye District, Abuja. Email: inyeneibanga@yahoo.com

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TECH DIGEST – “Building a vibrant Digital Agriculture sector that leverages on digital technologies and innovations has become imperative as the population of Nigeria continues to grow with large demographic of young adult,” the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa has said.

The DG said this at the Review Workshop on National Digital Agriculture Strategy (NDAS) held virtually.

Mallam Abdullahi who was represented by the Director eGovernment Development and Regulation, Dr Vincent Olatunji hinted that, NITDA under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has developed the Nigeria Digital Agriculture Strategy (NDAS) to build a vibrant digital agriculture sector that leverages digital technologies and innovations.

This, he said has become “Imperative as the population of Nigeria continues to grow with large demographic of young adults, especially people migrating from the rural areas to the urban areas”.

The Director General pointed out that leveraging on digital technologies and innovations will attract youthful population into agricultural sector, create new digital business models across the agriculture value chain and enabling millions of jobs productivity while increasing the contribution of sector to Gross Domestic Product, (GDP).

“I belief it will make Nigeria a leading country in food security and exporter of standard agricultural products to the rest of the world,” he added.

The DG recalled that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has identified agriculture as a key frontier in addressing the economic and unemployment challenges in the country, as the government promised to leverage on it to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030.

Mallam Abdullahi reiterated that these promises are also part of the Minister’s directives to the agencies under the supervision of the ministry.

“NITDA has developed a programme to support the achievement of the Ministry’s mandates and this could be seen as one of the visions of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy called the NIGERIA SMART INITIATIVE (NSI).

He said this will facilitate the integration of digital technologies and innovations in every sector of the economy with the aim of unlocking inherent potentials and opportunities, thereby enabling and optimizing each sector substantially for economic diversification and contribution to GDP.

A facilitator at the workshop Mr. Lukman Lamid of the NITDA’s eGovernment Department and Regulations explained that eight complementary initiatives have been designed for NDAS among which are; organise Agtech Entrepreneual training programs for startups, establishing Digital Agriculture Strategy and Advisory Forum, establishing and promoting Agtech Career Initiative.

Other includes establishing rural digital literacy initiative in Agriculture, establish agricultural digital innovation hubs for research and innovations, build consortium on ICT for climate-smart agriculture platforms and gender inclusion in digital agriculture.

Lamid said a platform for the Nigeria Digital Agriculture Community group will be created to include NITDA, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Related Federal Public Institutions, State Governments and Farmers.

By PRNigeria

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