Browsing: Africa’s Agriculture

• This partnership will allow OCP Africa scale its Digital Agriculture Platform.
• In 2021, Agriculture accounted for 17.2% of Africa’s total revenue.
• Smallholder farmers estimate a loss of at least 15% of their entire yield during the food production process.

Microsoft has announced its partnership with OCP Africa through its Africa Transformation Office to improve Africa’s food security and Agritech at the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries. The partnership will assist smallholder farmers increase agricultural production through Agritech.

OCP Africa is an agricultural company that supplies fertilizer solutions adapted to local conditions. The company has built a reputation with its initiative to support small-scale farmers within the continents. 

With Africa’s recent technological investments, more industries are incorporating technology to increase efficiency, boost performance and prevent any damage. Agritech is one of the few revolutionary concepts Africa has eagerly adopted over the past decade. This new collaboration will …

Farmers across the continent are expected to meet virtually later this month at a time when they have reported massive losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Fairtrade Africa Programmes Director Chris Oluoch, farmers in Africa lost an estimated 80 percent of their revenue in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oluoch says the pandemic has also seen many workers lose their jobs, as companies closed shop due to lack of access to markets as most countries closed their borders.

Most affected was the flower sector where a number of flower farms shut down their businesses.

“In Kenya, about three flower farms completely shut down their business, while in Tanzania, two farms closed shop. The effects of the pandemic continue to cause havoc on the agriculture sector in the region that is already suffering from post-harvest losses,” said Oluoch.

Oluoch was speaking on Tuesday, 15th June 2021 during …

Beyond the COVID-19, the food and agriculture landscape in Africa will change because of the pandemic in terms of processing and value addition, agri-food e-commerce among others according to a report by Selina Wamucii

The report titled “Impact of COVID–19 on Africa’s Agriculture: What the Coronavirus (COVID–19) Means for African Family Farmers and Fishermen”, shows how the food and agricultural landscape across Africa will be shaped by new developments in the future.

   1. Processing and Value Addition

According to the report, due to the COVID-19 pandemic most countries supply chain got interrupted with boarders closing among others, therefore, to ensure this does not happen again in case of another pandemic, countries will seek to reduce reliance on cross-border imports mostly on food and have control of their food own production.

With the closed borders, African countries that export raw and unprocessed fresh produce to other markets have been affected greatly …