Technology has an important role to play in empowering small-scale farmers to make their businesses more viable.

Growing at more than 7 per cent per annum, the Agriculture sector is the soul of world’s economy, contributing 17 percent to South Africa’s GDP.

Sixty percent of the world’s unused land is in Africa, and one must acknowledge the difference between South Africa and Africa north of the Limpopo, where smallholder farmers are predominantly responsible for 90% of the production. In South Africa, it’s the exact opposite. Ninety percent of production comes from commercial farms.

“So, there’s opportunity here, “confirms Tavonga Alex Siyavora, John Deere’s representative in sub-Saharan Africa. “Technology is crucial in terms of what it takes for commercial South African farmers to be successful today; it’s more important than ever to make sure you are getting higher yields with less inputs.” Siyavora adds that we need to display more radical thinking around shared equipment and contracting models, such as what has been successful in Nigeria.

Here is a list of a few innovative startups pertaining to the agriculture sector.

Agri-Hub  platform is a collaboration between the South African fruit industry representatives and competing software solution providers to service the South African fruit industry’s information needs, providing essential information to the industry decision-makers at various levels.

GreenFingers Mobile is a mobile technology platform which manages and finances large groups of smallholder farmers in value chains. GreenFingers Mobile replaces pen and paper based management systems with real time big data to reduce transaction costs and enable the efficient inclusion of smallholder farmers in South Africa.

Rikin Gandhi, founder of Digital Green has developed a project to educate farmers in the form of simple videos starring local farmers themselves. They empower smallholder farmers to lift themselves out of poverty by harnessing the power of technology and forming grass roots-level partnerships. DigitalGreen boasts successful models in India and Ethopia.

FarmPin (Initiated by Cape Town start up DroneClouds) together with satellite performance maps, are using pins as a great tool to aid farmers in pinpointing plant performance and getting into the field to work on them.

Wala is a blockchain-powered financial services provider. The company, in partnership with Dala, a provided 100,000,000 Dala token loans (equivalent to $10M US) to 50,000 smallholder farmers starting in Uganda to purchase fertilizer. In time, the same will be provided to local farmers in South Africa, Republic of Congo, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Agritech is showing growth on the continent.  According to a Forbes report, investments in agriculture technology in Africa have seen $19-million invested in the past two years, with agritech startups showing a growth of 110% in the period. Kenya and Nigeria are leading the agritech market on the continent.

Training is important but so is technology

IOL’s article headed “Training is needed at ground level for agriculture entrepreneurs “ is true. However,  Professor GE Zharare, dean  of the University of Zululand agriculture department, said that the bottom up training approach might not work in some cases, as technology is required. “Most of the farmers do not know the potential of their land or what their environment could give them, and sometimes grow the wrong crop,” he said.

Agriculture is global

South Africa’s farmers compete globally and have to use the latest technology to ensure that decision-making is as effective as possible.

“We’re in a global village, so our produce competes with the US, Brazil, Australia, etc. We need to be better and more effective, and we need the newest technology to be more effective in our decision-making,” said Grain SA chairperson Jaco Minnaar.”If that leads to even a 2% increase in yield or profitability, it makes us compete better with the rest of the world.”

According to Minnaar, access to timely information about things such as drought, fertilisation and irrigation was currently the biggest priority. When it comes to livestock, in the future farmers will use nanotechnology that will measure their animals’ health.

“There’s a lot of untapped potential in even software development, where a lot of people in rural areas have come up with innovative solutions to help access mechanisation,” confirms Tavonga Alex Siyavora.

Agritech is yet another sleeping GIANT that has been awakened in the Agricultural Sector.

The possibilities in the agriculture sector are truly exciting.