Digital innovation and policy reforms offer the greatest prospects for transforming the smallholder farming sector, SACAU president Dr Theo de Jager and CEO Mr Ishmael Sunga told delegates while presenting at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Smart Farming convening recently which was also attended by philanthropist Bill Gates.

 The SACAU leadership was presenting “A contextual overview of smallholder farming in subSaharan Africa: Constraints, Needs and Opportunities for digital innovation.’’ De Jager and Sunga noted that smallholder farmers (SHF) were the poorest fraternity in Sub-Sahara Africa. “The smallholder sector offers the greatest prospects to move large numbers of SHFs out of poverty,” they said, adding that “digital innovation and policy reforms offer the greatest prospects for transforming the smallholder farming sector.”