Browsing: Agriculture

• By fostering e-commerce expertise, the International Trade Centre (ITC) is paving the way for West African agribusinesses to thrive beyond borders.
• ITC’s initiative offers tips on digital marketing, online payments, shipping logistics, and customer service, fostering a collaborative spirit across borders.
• For many players, poor online visibility, limited e-commerce access, and inadequate digital skills stifle growth and restrict trade opportunities within ECOWAS.

In the fertile fields of Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, small agribusinesses dream of reaching regional markets, but limited digital skills and sparse access to online platforms keep them tethered to local sales.

To unlock their potential, the International Trade Centre (ITC) has launched a transformative initiative under its ECOWAS Agricultural Trade (EAT) programme, equipping local advisors and institutions to guide these businesses into the digital age.

By fostering e-commerce expertise, ITC is paving the way for West African agribusinesses to thrive beyond borders.

A Regional Training Revolution

In …

• FAO is breathing new life into Tanzania’s avocado value chain through innovation, strategic investment, and inclusive growth.
• Tanzania owes much of this success to its smallholder farmers, who cultivate nearly 90 per cent of the country’s crop.
• Avocado exports surged by 74% between 2021 and 2023 — leaping from 15,432 tonnes to 26,826 tonnes.

In Tanzania, a quiet green revolution is taking root—one avocado at a time. Under the banner of the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative, Tanzania is championing the avocado as a flagship crop to drive sustainable agricultural transformation.

The initiative, which is backed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is breathing new life into the avocado value chain through innovation, strategic investment, and inclusive growth.

At the moment, Tanzania stands tall among more than 30 African nations in the OCOP programme, with avocado chosen as its signature crop thanks to …

• Agriculture sector is one of the major greenhouse gas emitters.
• AI solutions like Catalyst Zero hep identify emissions in agricultural processes.
• Agriculture sector accounted for 11% of emissions in 2022 according to FAO.

AI technologies such as the new Catalyst Zero are accelerating the reduction of emissions across the farming supply chain. Agriculture equipment manufacturing and use are main pollutants of the sector but application of such AI solutions helps in reducing farming’s carbon footprint.

AGCO Corporation, a European based global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural machinery and agriculture technology is a pioneer of this AI solution together with other partners.

“The global company is on a mission to revolutionize farming and significantly cut down its environmental footprint, with ambitious goals to slash emissions 55 percent by 2033 and 90 percent by 2050,” says AGCO Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary Roger Batkin.

Sounds impossible? Maybe, …

• Availability of mobile phones, internet increasing agriculture digitization.
• Smallholder farmers still lag in adapting digital solutions in farming.
• Policymakers urged to prioritize digitalization  interventions for smallholder farmers.

Across Africa, a new era of agriculture is unfolding, driven by the rise of farming AI (artificial intelligence)—a powerful tool that promises to revolutionize food production and meet the demands of a growing population. Increasingly, farming Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ‘future present’ of agriculture development as rising number of smallholder farmers in Africa adopt various digital solutions to increase productivity.

In a recent research that looked into rural farmers’ experiences and attitudes toward digital tools and services in Africa, the findings show that the trend is less than promising, comparatively speaking.

“We like to look at how the adoption and application of digital services, and digital solutions directly and/or indirectly to agricultural processes and how farmers are fairing, if at all,” explains …

• Through various AfDB financing programmes across Africa, a total of 61M people have gained access to clean water since 2015.
• Another 33M people have benefited from improved sanitation while 46M Africans have gained access to ICT services, even as 25M people gained access to electricity.
• Next up for AfDB is the push to connect 300M Africans to electricity by 2030, and measure Africa’s vast green wealth as part of the continent’s GDP.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) positively impacted over 515 million lives over the past 10 years, the lender’s President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has revealed. While addressing Heads of State and Government at the just concluded 38th session of the African Union Summit, Dr. Adesina said the bank has positively impacted 231 million women during the decade under review.

While sharing his scorecard before the august gathering, Dr. Adesina noted that AfDB‘s initiatives have led to 127 million …

• The Senegal 2050 plan seeks to address the economy’s weaknesses and position the West African nation as a diversified and dynamic economy in the coming decades.
• At the heart of the Senegal 2050 plan is a commitment to green energy and infrastructure advancement.
• The strategy encompasses substantial enhancements in healthcare, guaranteeing that a healthier populace boosts productivity and innovation.

Over the last decade, Senegal’s economy has remained strong, supported by major sectors, including agriculture, mining, and services. The country’s GDP growth has remained consistently strong compared to regional averages.

Infrastructure projects, enhanced business regulations, and robust regional trade connections are among the pillars contributing to Senegal’s stable GDP. As a member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), Senegal also benefits from a stable currency hedged to the euro, which helps control inflation and provides a reliable investment environment.

Like many African countries, Senegal grapples with …

• Almost half of world’s population in 2050 will be African youth.
• However, unemployment, food insecurity remain a challenge to African youth.
• Political will and financing are the keys to African youth agribusiness development.

As projections continue to show that the youth in Africa will make up half of the entire world in the two and a half decades (25yrs) alone, one wonders what will be the economic health of this half of the world? According to an Oxford Business Group report on agriculture as a business, experts review African youth as both a problem and a solution to global development, now and the not so distant future as well.

Already, youth in Africa suffer from under education or a total lack thereof, they are unemployed, malnourished and they are dependent; if the trend continues, then by 2050, then this distraught condition of today’s African youth will be the sad and …

• Africa’s food and agriculture market could reach $1 trillion in 2030 from $280 billion in 2023, with over $60 billion spent on food imports yearly.
• Access to credit poses a significant barrier to private sector investment in Africa’s agriculture sector
• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlights that around 30 to 40 per cent of food produced in Africa is lost before it reaches consumers.

Africa is a sleeping giant, at least from the agricultural sector. The region’s food and agriculture market could reach $1 trillion from $280 billion in 2023, with over $60 billion spent on food imports yearly.

The numbers in the latter are self-explanatory agriculture in Africa is not only a staple economic activity for most of the population but the region at large.

However, the sector is faced with both promising leads of growth but, at the same time, hurdles, including lack of proper funding leading to …

• Kenya’s economic resurgence in 2024 proving a reality following a notable upturn in recent months, marked by positive indicators across sectors.
• According to CBK, leading indicators point to the continued strong performance of the Kenyan economy in the first quarter of 2024.
• According to the World Bank, Kenya’s economic growth is projected to be 5.2 per cent, boosted by increased investment in the private sector as the government reduces its activities in the domestic credit market.

A strong rebound

Kenya’s economic prospects are looking brighter, attributed to the interventions by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which have played a massive role in easing volatility witnessed less than three months ago.

Major economic indicators in the country show that confidence is slowly creeping back after the government secured the International Monetary Fund’s facility to pay back the Eurobond.

The repayments had triggered volatility in financial markets, including the …

Africa’s agritech potential is immense. Agriculture can help solve various issues, including food security, poverty reduction, and economic transformation. However, technology is needed to revolutionise agriculture and solve farming and agricultural challenges.…