The meeting proposed the bundling of digital services, agri-tech innovation challenges and open systems to help build financially viable supply capacity.

“Efforts need to be catalysed on both the policy and investment fronts for digitalization to help make agri-food systems more productive, more inclusive and more sustainable in the future,”  FAO Investment Centre Director Mohamed Manssouri, said

Before the COVID-19 crisis, digital technologies were changing the global economy, and agri-food systems were part of that transformation. “With COVID-19, this trend has accelerated,” Manssouri noted.

Like elsewhere, the spread of COVID-19 has disrupted agri-food systems across Africa. Key supply chains have been interrupted, markets closed and movement restricted, resulting in agricultural labor shortages. Farmers are missing planting seasons, while agribusinesses are facing liquidity constraints.

Demand for catering has dwindled and consumer preferences have shifted away from highly perishable foods, like fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, to ones with longer shelf-lives.

“We must also use this wave of interest to build digital platforms that facilitate linkages between value chain actors at much-reduced transaction costs,” Martin Fregene, the Bank’s Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industries, said.

As the pandemic gradually shifts from an emergency response to recovery and resilience, there is an opportunity to build back better in the agricultural sector, FAO Investment Officer Gerard Sylvester said, noting that financial inclusion will be a game-changer in rural communities.

“We need to ensure that costs are not a barrier, that small-scale farmers can adopt and apply digital advisory and other knowledge products and that the content is relevant, localized and actionable.”

Ed Mabaya, Manager of the Bank’s Agri-business Division, said that “population growth, coupled with the expanding middle class, youth bulge, and changing diets could drive the value of the African food market to $1 trillion by 2030.

The growth of digital, data-driven and tech-enabled solutions can trigger a new green revolution for Africa, addressing some of the challenges and constraints along the entire value chain, from input supply to the consumer end, he noted.

In his closing remarks, Benjamin Addom, Team Leader, ICT for Agriculture at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), noted that digitalisation is critical for the agricultural sector due to the potential negative impact of the health crisis on economic recovery and food security.

“We need to understand the linkage between digital agriculture solutions and services with big data and analytics, viable business models, and the enabling environment required to be able to fully realise digitalisation for agriculture during recovery and sustainability,” he said.

The African Development Bank launched its Digital Agriculture flagship initiative at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in August 2019, with the aim of helping to create an enabling environment to unlock digital solutions across Africa.

The webinar presentations can be viewed here. (https://bit.ly/2YoHnLA)

Upcoming sessions:

• 24 June 2020: Advisory services and big data analytics. Please click here (https://bit.ly/2YoHnLA) to register.

• 8 July 2020: Improving market access through e-commerce

• 22 July 2020: Financial inclusion