Zim launches strategy to improve efficiency, enhance agricultural competitiveness
By Conrad Mwanawashe
The AgriTech Strategy, launched Monday, will enhance agricultural productivity, provide a basis for industrialisation and ensure the provision of timely and relevant information to the farming community, secretary for Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Resettlement, Dr John Basera has said.
The strategy, jointly launched by the Ministries of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Resettlement and Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, was developed under the Smart Africa e-Agriculture and AgriTech initiative championed by Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe subsequently developed the National AgriTech Strategy (2021-2025) to leverage AgriTech innovations to improve efficiency, to increase effectiveness, to reduce costs and enhance the competitiveness of agriculture, resultantly improving production and productivity.
Zimbabwe joined other African Countries in the Smart Africa alliance.
This is an African initiative and vision of transforming Africa from its current position and operation into a Smart Africa by embracing Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in all sectors of the economy in line with the transform Africa agenda. ICTs integrated with various technologies have taken the world by storm and has transformed it into ‘single’ global village.
Likewise, technologies such as Internet of Things (IoTs), mobile technology, Voiceover- Internet Protocol (VoIP), Cloud computing and many more have removed the barriers to communication and accessibility of information and services.
Zimbabwe has been chosen to spearhead AgriTech flagship in Africa and is going to be the centre of reference for AgriTech innovations in Africa. This is such a great honour to be accorded flagship status.
There are several pillars which Zimbabwe is going to work on in achieving its national vision of Smart Zimbabwe 2030, among the pillars is the Smart Cities, which has already started its implementation in Harare, Smart Parliament which has been commissioned and functional among many others including the AgriTech which forms the country’s economic backbone and thus commands the highest priority in our implementation strategic plan.
Smart Africa is an alliance of 32 African countries representing over 815 million people, international organisations and global private sector players tasked with Africa’s digital agenda. The alliance is empowered by a bold and innovative commitment by African Heads of State to accelerate sustainable socioeconomic development on the continent through the use of Information Communication Technologies.
With a vision to transform Africa into a single digital market 2030, the Smart Africa Alliance brings together Heads of State who seek to accelerate the digitalization of the continent. Through Smart Africa, Africa is aiming to bring about sustainable development, enable a cashless economy, increase citizen participation, increase production, productivity and efficiency, increase transparency, trust and accountability, increased evidence-based decision making and last but not least, create jobs, especially for the youth.
Effective implementation of ICTs in Agriculture now referred to as AgriTech is the possible solution. AgriTech offers strong potential for driving economic growth and rising incomes through increased efficiency of agricultural productivity, improved livelihoods and value chain development. It can also play an important role in addressing some of agriculture’s most pressing challenges, which include climate change, loss of biodiversity, drought, desertification, high individual risk and inefficient supply chains.
Put simply, AgriTech involves designing, developing and applying innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) with a primary focus on agriculture. The aim is to boost agricultural and rural development by improving access to valuable information that can help agricultural stakeholders to make the best possible decisions and use the resources available most productively and sustainably.
ICTs that can be harnessed for AgriTech may include devices, networks, services and applications. These can range from cutting edge Internet-based technologies and sensing tools to other technologies that have been around for much longer, such as radio, fixed telephones, televisions, mobile phones and satellites. In a sector that is becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive, having access to the right information, at the right time, in the right format, and through the right channel can make a crucial difference to the livelihoods of stakeholders involved in agriculture and related fields; this can accelerate our march towards Vision 2030.
Setting in place a national AgriTech strategic blueprint is an essential first step for any country planning to use ICTs for agriculture (ICT4Ag). Experience shows that committing piecemeal resources to ICT4Ag on an ad hoc basis results in higher costs and lower impacts. Any effective roadmap for AgriTech will require a holistic, multi-stakeholder approach as ICTs are also driving other sectors which are critical for agriculture, namely banking, weather monitoring, insurance, logistics and e-governance.
“To operationalize the Smart Africa Manifesto, the Smart Africa Alliance identified flagship projects led by Member States. One of these flagship projects is “AgriTech” led by the government of Zimbabwe. In close collaboration with a range of key public and private sector stakeholders and partners, the Republic of Zimbabwe with close technical support of the Smart Africa Secretariat developed the AgriTech Blueprint for Africa,” said Lacina Kone, Director General/CEO – Smart Africa.
“This Blueprint, under the leadership of Zimbabwe, was adopted by all Member States of the Smart Africa Alliance and officially launched during the last Smart Africa Board meeting on November 10, 2021. The Blueprint aims at improving the lives of the smallholder farmers within rural and peri-urban communities through better utilization Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the agricultural value chain. The aim is achieved through harmonization of regulatory and policy framework and proffering strategic recommendations for African Member States to create national and cross-border pilots in AgriTech in Africa,” he added.
This creates immense potential for Africa to pull communities out of poverty and also to guarantee food security for our growing population.
The strategy will be implemented through the integrated Agriculture Information Management System (AIMS)’s two focal areas;
- The Centralised and Integrated sub-information systems on crops, livestock, water and land systems; and
- The coordinated mechanism for a Higher Frequency Monitoring System anchored on identified and agreed indicators to activate responses and an embedded Crisis Modifiers System.
A high frequency monitoring system is a risk financing mechanism inbuilt in existing or on-going programmes to timeously avail funds for the necessary responses to preserve and conserve the initial investment.
Last year, government approved AIMS, a ministry and sector-wide innovative information communication management system integrating;
- Crop assessment systems, for area, yield and risk
- Livestock Management Sytems
- Land Information Management Systems; and
- Water Resources Management Systems.
The establishment of these AIMS sub-systems will facilitate real time collection, collation, analysis, synthesis and distillation of agriculture statistical data and information, raise awareness of the critical role of accurate information for planning, policy research, monitoring and evaluation. It will also promote the wider adoption and use of evidence- based decision-making and assisting in season decisions by farmers, government and other stakeholders.
Useful and relevant information is required to help farmers before, during and after cultivation including:
- Pre-cultivation: including crop section, land selection, calendar definition, access to credit
- Crop cultivation and harvesting: including land preparation and sowing, input management, water management and fertilisation, pest management
- Post- harvest: including marketing, transportation, packaging, food processing.
Basera said the farming community is keen to adopt and embrace technologies that relate to easing the way they do their operations. These include:
Sensing technologies – including soil scanning (type and nutrients), water and moisture, light, humidity, temperature management;
Software applications – specialised software solutions that target specific crops suitable for agricultural regions in the country as well as software for livestock farming;
Weather forecasting – precise weather prediction and dissemination of same information to stakeholders;
Communication platforms – mobile communication access, access to markets (local, regional and international), GPS and drone technologies;
Storage technologies for all crops, grading and regrading before marketing;
Hardware and software systems – for Internet of Things (IoT)-based solutions, robotics and automation, mechanisation, drip irrigation and water conservation.