It Takes a Digital Village to Improve Smallholders’ Productivity and Resilience.
10th Sankalp Africa Summit
In the last 10 years, Sankalp has been on a journey to effectuate lessons learned from the Indian ecosystem to East Africa and to build stronger corridors of South-South collaboration.
The idea was to link collaborations of the South-South, that create an environment for entrepreneurs to speedily build better and safer networking forces that will enable catch-up with rapid transformations in the entrepreneurial transformations.
There has been significant growth in the investment deals in Africa since the genesis of Sankalp which has enabled myriad collaborations that have made Sub-Africa become illuminant for impact investors seeking to support business-led development to make transformational impacts.
How does It take a digital village to improve smallholders’ productivity and resilience?
Data shows Agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is unable to meet growing demand. Current projections point to a two-fold increase in demand for food by 2050 (OECD).
The scenario of below-average production induced by traditional agronomical practices is among the pathways to low yields. This status has caused agriculture innovators to go far and beyond to create means that can reach a large number of farmers quickly to deliver services and advice to farmers in contextualized and responsive formats.
10th Sankalp Africa Summit
In the last 10 years, Sankalp has been on a journey to effectuate lessons learned from the Indian ecosystem to East Africa and to build stronger corridors of South-South collaboration.
The idea was to link collaborations of the South-South, that create an environment for entrepreneurs to speedily build better and safer networking forces that will enable catch-up with rapid transformations in the entrepreneurial transformations.
There has been significant growth in the investment deals in Africa since the genesis of Sankalp which has enabled myriad collaborations that have made Sub-Africa become illuminant for impact investors seeking to support business-led development to make transformational impacts.
How does It take a digital village to improve smallholders’ productivity and resilience?
Data shows Agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is unable to meet growing demand. Current projections point to a two-fold increase in demand for food by 2050 (OECD).
The scenario of below-average production induced by traditional agronomical practices is among the pathways to low yields. This status has caused agriculture innovators to go far and beyond to create means that can reach a large number of farmers quickly to deliver services and advice to farmers in contextualized and responsive formats.
“Weather forecasting gives the farmer information in advance about how things are going to look. Farmers are now not ambushed by events.” Mr. Arthur Wamani, Regional Climate Resilience Agriculture Advisor, highlighted.
Research
A continuous engagement of seasoned expertise has enabled continuous engagements around crosscutting issues that have collaborations that are the armor of solutions. Climate change impacts and conflicts are now sabotaging food production and distribution. FSPN Africa, through voluntary carbon financing, is training farmers to be climate resilience ambassadors, where they earn from good agricultural practices that sequestrate carbon from the atmosphere.
Simplified communications
The use of a responsive USSD tool and WhatsApp has enabled two-end communication. They are convenient as the farmer can get instant replies. Extension messages are also sent to farmers during their active hours on the phone, like morning hours. Getting referrals for inputs from suppliers and customers via the groups has immensely saved time for them.
Gender inclusion
Understanding human-centered approaches by embracing gender equity has scaled the participation of women in lucrative agriculture. This has a net web of benefits that include:
- Increased contribution to the household such as improving household income and paying for other needs.
- Sustainable food affordability and supply.
- Forefront at decision-making.
- Increased social protection.
- Gender policy advocacy and implementing approaches.
- Data-driven decisions
Digitally harnessed data continues to work right in the proper targeting of solutions for farmers. They are getting the right inputs depending on the frequency of weather data. Digital tools are making it easy to know planting data, and target markets and also improved mobile means of payment. Data helps farmers plan for production budgets and track expenditures, which are pivotal in ensuring food and nutrition security.