From the agricultural use of drones in Mozambique to solar irrigation systems in Niger, the African continent is embracing digital technologies to boost its food productivity and profitably – and that only becomes a more critical goal as young populations grow across the coming decades.
That’s one reason why youth is at the center of a recent report from the Malabo Montpellier Panel. The 17-member panel is made up of African experts, along with a few Europeans and an Indian, and led by Ousmane Badiane of Senegal and Joachim von Braun of Germany.
Food security and agricultural production are its core mission, and the “Byte by Byte” report advances an understanding of how information and communications technology (ICT) applications can transform the future of African farming. That’s especially critical in an era of climate change, which some experts warn is already threatening the gains in eradicating hunger and extreme poverty made in recent years.
Climate change and African challenges
A separate study released at the end of May suggests that’s the case. Scientists from Denmark and the United States looked at production of top world crops – barley, cassava, maize, rice, oil palm, rapeseed, sorghum, sugarcane, soybean and wheat – and found that “projected” impacts aren’t all in the future.
Some of those impacts are visible now. South Africa has seen a 12 percent reduction in the calories these crops provide; Zimbabwe has seen a 10 percent drop, the PLOS study said, and Ghana saw an 8 percent loss. There are many variables among crops, and some regions see improved yields – cassava in particular – but on balance there’s an annual 1.4 percent loss in the crops, or 0.8 percent in total diet calories, across sub-Saharan nations.