Use Digital Innovations to Boost Farming - Veep Urges African Countries

By Jonathan Donkor

The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has advocated the use of digital innovations in agriculture, describing it as the game changer Africa needs to boost farming exploits.

With the use of such technology including drone for application of inputs, he said the continent could unlock and harness its huge untapped agricultural potential to increase yields, ensure food security and create jobs.

" We may have missed the opportunity provided by the green revolution in the past but this time around, Africa cannot afford to do so in the era of leveraging technology to leapfrog our challenges and open up opportunities for development," he said.

The Vice President said this in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng at the opening of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2019 in Accra yesterday.

More than 2,300 global players along the agriculture value chain are attending the week-long forum on the theme "Grow Digital: Leveraging digital transformation to drive sustainable food systems in Africa".

The annual event has set the platform for the participants including past and present heads of states, ministers of agriculture, development partners, industry captains from the private sector, agripreneurs and other agriculture industry stakeholders to discuss how to use technologies and innovative partnerships to realise the full potential of the continent's agribusiness.

According to Dr Bawumia, technology presented many services including disease prevention, proper storage, supply chain management that were needed to address the numerous challenges in the sector.

Ghana, he said had created the atmosphere for the use of digital innovation through various flagship programmes and was therefore ranked amongst the top five countries enabling agribusiness last year.

Noting the critical role of technology in socioeconomic development, he urged African countries to back their commitment to digitisation for agriculture with actions by putting in place the necessary policies and structures.

Ms Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Economy of the African Union Commission said digitisation would make agriculture attractive to the youth and women.

Through job creation, she said it would get the youth engaged in lawful venture and diminish their involvement in terrorism.

For this reason and the ability of technology to increase yields and address extreme hunger, she called on the continent to grasp the opportunity for socio-economic growth.

Dr Agnes Kalibata, President of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), paid tribute to the memory of the former UN Secretary General, the late Kofi Annan for his pioneering role in the AGRA and the forum.

She said collaboration between private and public sectors was needed to scale up use of technology and describing Africa as the best investment destination, called for more investment in digitisation in agriculture for increased turn over.

Read Full Story