Proposed information for the concept note - The challenges that face our global food and agricultural system are enormous and some entry points that government have to address are:
- Inadequate access to information: often, there is insufficient access to information and, in particular, to technical and not-technical knowledge of the agri-tech industry.
- Inadequate digital literacy and new skills development: labour is not yet competitive in a world where digital technologies are able to replace human labour.
- Inadequate access to financial resources: especially in poor and rural areas, these dynamics are worsened by the higher difficulty in accessing financing to obtain the initial investments needed to adopt digital solutions.
- Inadequate infrastructures: the impossibility of relying on proper infrastructures undermines the diffusion and the benefits of any sort of innovation or technological development.
- Inadequate support by the innovation system: digitalization in agriculture is also obstructed by the absence (or the inadequate awareness) of supporting elements such as policies, standards and regulatory frameworks.
- The increase of socio-economic divides between developing and developed countries.
Digital divide: gap between demographics and regions with access to modern ICTs and those that do not have access;
- Gender divide: gap between genders in access to technologies;
- Geography divide: gap between different geographical areas.
- Lack of investments in non-developed countries: Private sector organizations that are commercializing the latest technologies are often hesitant to begin working in countries that do not ensure sufficient levels of intellectual property (IP) and property protection.
- Low affordability of new solutions: if not well regulated and managed, the development of new technologies and innovation will increasingly exclude the poorest because of their high costs of adoption, especially when it comes to ICT services.
- Trust of information: the increasing number of digital platforms which make information available to actors of the agri-tech value chain (farmers in the first place) present issues of trust of the information source, as well as on the quality of the information provided, due to the underlying interests of the information provider .
- Data ownership: it is not always clear how information gathered from farming and in-field activities by digital tools and technologies are used by technology providers or other actors.
Further guiding questions related to Q1 for your consideration:-
- Do you think the global challenges highlighted are conclusive?
- According to you, what should be added or removed?
The potential entry point for government in addressing the challenges and foster development of digital agriculture will includes the following:
1.In African,greater percentages of those practicing agriculture is inadequately trained or untrained,let alone in digital agriculture. Government have to sincerely harness people of interest and not money dependent political officcials.
2.Many remote areas where Agriculture is practiced lack access to networks and that can affect the use of GPS gadgets. Government have to finance the availability of network in the rural areas.
3.Government have to provide an enabling environment ranging from good polices,laws and allow for private participation.
Bring the Youth and the center and enable them to own the process
How can the youth be brought on board? Their representation ?
- Governments need to update their existing website and provide up to date current information on their website.
- Governments need to make it very clear to their staff that research information on agricultural development does not belong to the individual staff members but belongs to the citizens of those countries, therefore such information must be made accessible to the public in a timely manner and efficient manner.
- Many Government signed and agreed on Open Data Portal for purposes of making information access to the public. Many Government continue to not avail or update agricultural data and information which is essential for the citizens and other in making information discussion in agricultural production and trade.
A serious need is village officers needs to be trained in to the technologies,and deliver same to the agriculture community.
2.Start a tab-in smart phone,and let the regional connectivity,digital/video/radio connectivity-interactive to e established.
3.Insurance companies needs to be linked to the owner/or land holder along with their Adahar or social security number.
4.Village development officers shall be able to byepass the immediate bosses when needed.
5.In put materials needs to be inside roofed buildings,having-silos,bins etc.Modernise the age old systems for people to use.[Bins-silos were in every house at least 70 years back]
Most governments in the developing countries tend to move slow on new technologies. Take the case of drone technology and the rigid processes entailed in their importation. There is a big scare in line with security and this has rustrated innovators.
There is a need to relax this.
the basic requirements for the farmer :
1) Best quality of seeds
2) Fertilizers/Bio fertilizers
3) Agrometeorological services for remote areas (for controlling major loss during folds or dry spell)
4) Marketing services
Above mentioned four (4) services addressed by the government by direct or indirect it helps to foster the development of digital agriculture.
The digital agriculture can also help to farmers related new schemes, subsidy or technology
- The land holdings in developing countries like India is very small.Networking of small holding farmers to increase the acarage as single large piece of land by FPO's & NGO's is essential.Governmnt should focus on it to develop Digital Agriculture.
- Latest technologis which are suitable for the small farm lands are Drones & Robots .These technologies should be promted and utilized.
- There should be a separate individual polisy to encourage Digital agriculture by the Governments and it should be govern byAgriculture research institutions, Agricuture Machinery manufactures,Progressive farmers.
- Government should allocate sufficient funds to develop innovative technologies which are suitable to small & Marginal farmers.
- In order to reduce Suicidal deaths in the farming sector, the governmnt should provide farm inputs,Machinery, loans at lower interest rates with minimal documentation and also provide Minimum support price by establishing digital Agri markets and make sure that digital markets are implementing with out fail.The Digital markets to be audited for fair practices.
The challenges are definitely inconclusive.... As an on-going initiative that seek inputs from stakeholders, the needs for different communities are expected to change over time. An important aspect for the council will be to effectively liaise with national governments to build their "analog infrastructures" that will support the envisaged digital solutions in the new 'Digital Council for Food and Agriculture'. How close the operations of the Council be to the end users will be crucial in its delivery.
The private sector has been eager to step up and provide innovations when the appropriate conditions are in place. Where governments can be most effective is in supporting a regulatory environment that encourages the sharing of information and the development of digital infrastructure, in particular in rural areas. It is costly to provide the core infrastructure components, such as the telecommunications networks and the central hosting or cloud services and the government could step in, perhaps in partnership with private sector actors, to facilitate and accelerate the building of this infrastructure.
Another area where governments can provide an important imput is in training. From technical colleges to universities, high schools to extension services, it is crucial to build a cadre of digitally skilled advocates to spread the knowledge and the mentality of digital transformation.
Life in rural areas is characterised with lack of electricity and bad roads. Yet some of these areas have very high crop yield. The result is low school enrolment and high poverty levels.
Internet connectivity tend to be high where road network is established and there is electricity. People need power to charge smartphones…Fibre optic cable is laid along public roads or follows electricity line….Unfortunately, these services are not avaiable in rural areas where agriculture is the main aconomic activity.
Roads and electricity, these are amenities the government should prioritise. Then private companies such as telecoms will see need to establish infrastructure due to perceived low risk. After that digital agriculture will then pick up.
I have documented this urgument before in a LinkedIn post before; https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/internet-enabled-agriculture-chris-ndungu..
Life in rural areas is characterised with lack of electricity and bad roads. Yet some of these areas have very high crop yield. The result is low school enrolment and high poverty levels.
Internet connectivity tend to be high where road network is established and there is electricity. People need power to charge smartphones…Fibre optic cable is laid along public roads or follows electricity line….Unfortunately, these services are not avaiable in rural areas where agriculture is the main aconomic activity.
Roads and electricity, these are amenities the government should prioritise. Then private companies such as telecoms will see need to establish infrastructure due to perceived low risk. After that digital agriculture will then pick up.
I have documented this urgument before in a LinkedIn post before; https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/internet-enabled-agriculture-chris-ndungu..
The entry points can be summarized asking the A's questions, are digital technologies in rural areas :
- Available, in terms of infrastructure, connectivity and quality of the service but also availablity of content in the language users can understand, replying to their needs
- Accessible - do people have access to the equipment, devices, maintenance.
- Affordable - is the price to pay for smallholder farmers, women, youth to have access affordable.
- Appropriate - adapted: are the devices appropriate in terms of resistance rural conditions exposed to climate changes such a very hot and very cold temperatres, dust, high level of humidity, shocks, can it be read easily ...
- Allowed - are there rules, social barriers that would prevent rural users to use the digital technologies.
- Ability: are users in rural areas prepared to use digital technologies, are there programme to make them trust the technologies, understand the benefits and developing their capacities to use them?
FAO has also highlighted in 7 success factors that should be taken into consideration to reduce the triple divide (digital, rural and gender):
- Provide adapted and reliable content from trusted sources.
- Develop capacities for three dimensions: the individual’s capacity, organizational capacity, and the enabling environment.
- Mainstream gender and diversity.
- Increase access and participation.
- Engage in partnerships, especially public-private.
- Identify the right mix of technologies.
- Ensure economic, social, and environmental sustainability.
By enhancing E-extension services:- E-extension services can help raise farm profits and provide a cost-effective way to reach a greater number of farmers
The government can also enhance market information through digital technologies:- Under certain conditions, improved access to market information via mobile phone can help increase farmers’ sales and prices, and reduce price dispersions across markets.
Potential entry points for Government to address the challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture:
-development of digital agricultural strategy to guide Government policy development in the field of agriculture to assist in the adoption and uptake of digital technologies;
- whether this is policy development that facilitates open data sharing or not:
-once Government strategy is decided; then policy development can assist access to information; and focus priorites around capacity building for digital and data literacy within agricultural industries.
To build trust, governments must ensure frameworks are in place to ensure agricultural technology industries are treating ag data safely, securely and respecting the privacy of the farmers. To do this Governments can examine a variety of regulatory options: unfair terms legislation; data codes of conduct that encourage best practice in data collection management and sharing.
It is relevant to focus on the equal better use of what is available today by the people in the different realities. It’s not only about accessibility to different things, because due to WWW huge amounts of data and tools are there awaiting to be used. The focal matter is to open opportunities to everybody to have the best benefit of them.
In most countries, it’s government’s duty to seek for the well-being of the population, but in most of them, society is able to participate through civil participation, NGO’s, etc. A possible useful strategy to address this is for decision takers to open the analysis process to different society’s actors, that can offer knowledge, plans and creativity to face this everybody’s problem.
Agriculture has to be considered a local activity with global impact. Inside the sustainability development’s postulates, this activity has to provide products and inputs not only to population surrounding the parcels, considering we are living in a global village. Important global tools such as satellite imagery can benefit different countries that might be in a difficult situation to buy, develop or use other technological tools.
A multinational council has the opportunity to focus correct efforts where are needed, because the local requirements have to be attended as so, having always in mind that each region is different in environmental, social and economic issues. This uniqueness can be better addressed by strategies emerging from de discussion of different points of view from inside and outside the areas.