William Warshauer’s article “How digital is solving 3 problems in agriculture” was published on World Economic Forum in January 2016. It is about some effects of  “fourth industrial revolution” that looks like for increasing numbers of the world’s smallholder farmers. A variety of new digital applications are now accelerating interventions improving productivity and growth in this sector.

“Nearly a third of the global population relies on agriculture for a living, and growth in this sector has been shown to be at least twice as effective at reducing poverty as growth in other sectors”.

Nowadays, digital applications are helping the agriculture sector to become more productive and sustainable. In different countries digital interventions in agriculture are accelerating the progress of agriculture development and are filling the gap which exists in this field between developing and industrialized countries. 

“Scientific and technological advances are opening up new possibilities for farmers around the world. The networked digital farm of the future is already making agriculture more efficient and sustainable today” (Crop Science).

New digital solutions can help farmers overcome various uncertainties, unforeseen circumstances as well as manage risks characterizing agriculture. Without a safety net, causes such as, for example, bad weather, crop disease, low prices from middlemen “can quickly turn into catastrophes”. To tackle all these risks, agriculture requires resilience, scale, a suitable digital world and other market incentives. 

A mobile product Connected Farmer  (started in East Africa) is proving to be useful to help farmers work with agribusinesses and to better manage their own crops and finances. With Connected Farmer farmers can get mobile payments and receipts, obtain a financial history, more easily access credit, insurance, and other financial tools.

Connected Farmer protects farmers against being taken advantage of by any buyer market (e.g. prices can be sent right to farmer’s phone) thus helping them maximize their returns by selling at the right time. Thus Connected Farmer  helps farmers improve their business operations and build resilience against potential setbacks.

On the Connected Farmer mobile platform, agribusinesses can “register farmers, manage contracts, provide extension services, make payments, extend farmer loans and provide SMS receipts”.

Mobile applications like Esoko, or Tigo Kilimo (in Tanzania) are providing up-to-date weather information and agronomic tips, while the Bima digital product builds resilience by offering life and crop insurance (for 18 million customers across 14 countries) to protect farmers against economic shocks.

Other mobile products such as iCow are changing the way dairy farmers tend their cows; Kilimo Salama is providing micro-insurance against bad weather; GeoMelodicos determines the most scientifically optimal time to plant crops.

Will digital solutions last in the long term?

The key lies in correctly aligning public and private sector incentives to help farmers enjoy commercial benefits in adopting digital supply chain solutions.

Moreover, the public sector can be instrumental in defraying start-up costs and supporting implementers.

Source: How digital is solving 3 problems in agriculture
See also: How digital is fixing three issues in agriculture

We would be pleased to hear from you about your experiences in using digital products to manage better your agribusiness!

Which approaches – according to you - could best trade on digital applications to help smallholders achieve real change over the long term?