Scaling precision agriculture in Africa presents a promising solution to the food insecurity that currently affects the continent. The Western region of Africa has the largest agricultural industry on the continent, benefiting from vast arable land, rainforests, and a climate conducive to large-scale agriculture.
Despite this potential, the region’s agricultural capabilities remain significantly underutilised, and precision agriculture can help address this issue. In this article, we will explore the importance of precision agriculture in enhancing productivity and provide an example of a startup that is scaling precision agriculture in West Africa.
Understanding Precision Agriculture
Precision farming, also known as precision agriculture, emphasises efficiency and data-driven decision-making. It involves using information technology (IT) to ensure that crops and soil receive exactly what they need for optimum health and productivity.
Although precision farming has not yet gained widespread acceptance in Africa, it is a crucial solution to the food crisis affecting many African countries today. Farmers can use precision agriculture to gather and analyse data about their farming activities. This includes tracking crops and animals, weather conditions, soil quality, and employee performance. Collecting this data helps farmers see their progress and make informed decisions.
Importance of Precision Farming
Precision farming has become essential to modern agriculture for several reasons:
1. Optimisation of Resources: With precision farming, farmers can utilise resources such as water, pesticides, fertilisers, and fuel more efficiently. By applying these resources precisely where needed and in the correct amounts, farmers can minimise waste and reduce costs.
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2. Increased Productivity and Crop Quality: Precision farming provides real-time information about crop health, soil conditions, moisture levels, and more. This empowers farmers to make data-driven decisions, resulting in improved crop yields and quality. Farmers can easily implement interventions like irrigation, fertilisation, and pest control based on the specific needs of their crops rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.
3. Environmental Protection: Precision farming significantly contributes to environmental sustainability. By reducing the overuse of fertilisers, pesticides, and water, precision farming helps minimise soil degradation and water pollution, preserving the environment for future generations.
4. Soil Health Maintenance: The overuse of agricultural chemicals can harm the soil microbiome and reduce fertility over time. Precision farming techniques strategically apply these materials, ensuring effective pest control and crop nutrition while maintaining the health and productivity of the soil.
While precision agriculture is gradually being adopted in Africa, several startups are pioneering this field, one notable example of a startup scaling precision agriculture in Nigeria is CroptIT.
About CropIT: A startup Scaling Precision Agriculture in Nigeria
CropIT is an innovative ag-tech company founded in 2019 in Lagos state Nigeria transforming farming practices through smart farming solutions. By leveraging digital technology, the startup aims to optimise agricultural processes and empower farmers with data-driven insights, precision agriculture, and digital tools that enhance efficiency and growth.
CropIT’s solutions streamline farming operations from planting through to harvest, resulting in higher yields and reduced waste. Additionally, CropIT promotes sustainable practices that encourage responsible land use, water conservation, and reduced reliance on chemical inputs.
CropIT Vision and Mission
Currently, over 1 billion people around the world are directly involved in small-scale agriculture, collectively producing 70% of the world’s food. The goal of CropIT is to connect and support these small-scale farmers, enabling them to cultivate more effectively and ultimately reshape global supply chains for their benefit. By Scaling precision agriculture CropIT aims to empower 10 million small-scale farmers in Africa to reach their economic potential by 2030.
In 2019, CropIT Nigeria Limited (CropIT), in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), launched a digital platform that has impacted more than 2,000,000 farmers and over 50,000 agricultural extension officers. This initiative aims to expand high-impact, digitally-enabled services to farmers and extension officers across Nigeria
The digital platform, which has strategic partnerships with organisations like MTN and 9mobile, has created a knowledge-based farming community and a well-structured network of extension officers.
For farmers, the platform offers access to reliable and affordable agricultural information, certification of extension officers, development of agricultural protocols, e-advisory services, and transactional services across major value chains, including rice, cassava, soybeans, cowpea, maise, sorghum, cashew, livestock, and fish, all accessible through their mobile phones.
Cutting-Edge Technologies By CropIT to Improve Precision Agriculture
CropIT supports precision farming through the use of satellite technology, enabling real-time management of crops, fields, and livestock. This approach ensures profitability, efficiency, increased crop yields, and optimisation of input processes.
To ensure sustainability, and environmental protection, CropIT employs information technology (IT) to guarantee that crops and soil receive precisely what they need for optimal health and productivity. This is accomplished through several key strategies:
Stage 1: Accessing Real-Time Images of Individual Plants
For each agricultural field, CropIT captures high-resolution aerial images from various sources. The platform employs multiple agriculture-related indices, including the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI), Moisture Stress Index (MSI), True Color (RGB), and other relevant indices. Their sensors collect data on moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity (EC) at various depths. All data is geo-tagged using GPS coordinates, creating geospatial time series for all measured metrics.
Stage 2: Utilising a Cloud Platform for Data Analysis
At the CropIT control centre, they integrate sensor data and imagery collected in stage 1 with additional information. This allows farmers to identify fields that require treatment and determine the optimal amounts of water, fertilisers, and pesticides to apply. This approach helps farmers avoid resource waste and prevents runoff, ensuring that the soil receives just the right amount of additives for optimal health. Ultimately, this reduces costs and minimises the environmental impact of farming.
The Need For Agritech Startups in Africa
As the world’s population is going to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 (United Nations Population Division), there is a pressing need to increase food production and West Africa has the potential to be a leading contributor to the global food basket. However, to achieve this, more innovative Agritech companies need to take the lead in scaling precision agriculture and introducing digital technology into farming practices.
Aside from CropIT, some leading Agritech start-ups in Africa include:
1. Farmers Pride: Founded in 2016, Farmers Pride is a Kenyan AgriTech platform that connects farmers at the village level with relevant information, quality inputs, and credible agricultural services. This enables farmers to make data-driven decisions and improve their productivity.
2. 3DIMO: 3DIMO is a South African startup founded in 2020 that provides intelligent tools and insights for managing livestock health and welfare. With 3DIMO farmers can track their livestock’s health, feeding patterns and reproduction.
3. Illuminum Greenhouses: Illuminum Greenhouses is an AgriTech startup that is building Africa’s first smart greenhouses. Founded in 2014, this start-up aims to improve production while also maintaining a healthy environment.
Looking Forward
Scaling precision agriculture is not just a trend but a necessary evolution for the future of farming, particularly in Africa. With the continent’s significant agricultural potential, leveraging technology through startups like CropIT and others is essential to meeting the food demands of an ever-growing global population.
The Future of Precision Agriculture
Some of the key innovations that are shaping the future of precision agriculture include:
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of technology that replicates human cognitive functions through artificial means, primarily using digital devices, robotics, and sophisticated computer systems.
In precision agriculture, vast amounts of data are collected from various sources, including remote sensing technologies, soil monitoring devices, GPS, and Internet of Things (IoT) equipment. This data is then processed using statistical and mathematical methods with the help of AI tools, leading to insightful interpretations and reliable forecasts.
2. Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is a decentralised, secure, and transparent digital ledger system that records transactions in interconnected blocks across a peer-to-peer network. It ensures that data is immutable and traceable, making it an invaluable tool in several sectors, including agriculture.
In precision farming, the use of blockchain technology enhances the accuracy and reliability of data related to crop health and its management. It facilitates seamless collaboration and data sharing among farmers, suppliers, and consumers, while also improving food safety through traceability. As blockchain technology evolves, its integration into precision agriculture promises increased efficiency, automation, and innovation, significantly impacting the future of sustainable farming practices.
3. Satellite Technology
The use of artificial satellites in orbit around the Earth for data collection and transmission is another key technology currently being employed in precision farming. By leveraging satellite imagery along with GPS and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, farmers can conduct real-time analysis of extensive farmland.
Integrating satellite technology is a crucial step toward agricultural modernisation, enabling precision, sustainability, and efficiency in farming practices. By utilising data from satellites, farmers can deliver targeted treatments to specific areas of their fields, resulting in more effective resource use, reduced waste, and a smaller environmental footprint.
By utilising AI, blockchain, and satellite technologies we can pave the way for more efficient, sustainable farming practices that conserve resources and enhance productivity. Embracing and supporting these innovations can help ensure food security and a prosperous future for farmers worldwide.
