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Africa must invest now to harness future agricultural technologies

By Ousmane Badiane, IFPRI. Cross-posted from IFPRI.org; this post first appeared on the Malabo Montpellier Panel blog.

Africa south of the Sahara is the only developing region in the world where the number of people living below the poverty line continues to rise.  Since agriculture contributes substantially to the economy in this region, spurring agricultural growth is crucial to reducing poverty. But while improved technology has been the driving factor in increased agricultural production growth in other developing areas, in Africa south of the Sahara, growth has been extensive rather than intensive, which will not be sustainable over the long term.

Last week, a panel of global and regional experts joined the Africa south of the Sahara Food Security Portal for a virtual dialogue on ICT use in African agriculture .  The dialogue centered on four main discussion questions:

Over the past decade, both the scale of and the access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) - including mobile phones, audio-visual communication, digital technologies, and internet services - have grown considerably in Africa south of the Sahara. The potential benefits of ICTs for the region’s agricultural sector, and its poor farming households, are especially important, as Africa south of the Sahara has the lowest rates of agricultural productivity and the highest rates of undernutrition in the world.

ReSAKSS:  Achieving a Nutrition Revolution for Africa