Agri-tech lets Africa deal with pandemic

Scaling up agriculture through agri-technology offers Africa its best hope to stand on its feet during and post the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a journal published by Cellulant, Africa's leading financial technology company that builds payment and agri-tech solutions.

This is their prescription given that the strict measures being put in place by governments to curb the spread of the outbreak will impact the continent's agricultural sector due to restrictions on commercial and social activities.

As of Wednesday, there were 69,578 confirmed cases across Africa, including 2,403 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, or the Africa CDC.

South Africa, the most affected country in Africa, on Tuesday reported 698 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the highest surge in a 24-hour cycle since the country reported its first case in early March, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 11,350, South Africa's Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a daily update.

Meanwhile, Algeria will extend measures aimed at restricting movement by 15 days until May 29, to cope with rising infections, Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerrad said on Tuesday.

The government last month decided to extend until May 14 restrictions on movement including a nationwide night curfew and closures of universities, schools and mosques. Public transport and air travel are still suspended.

Separately, the Economic Commission for Africa has also identified the impact of the coronavirus on food security as one of the most sensitive issues facing policymakers.

"With an unenviable track record at current levels of technological infrastructure, the scaling up of food production on the African continent is attainable only by harnessing food production to cutting edge technology," the Cellulant's journal said.

Internet age

The publication said that the internet age has brought in smart agricultural models, deploying technological advancements such as the Internet of Things, geo-positioning systems, big data, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, remote sensing and robotics.

It further said that smart farming－the practical application of the technologies－can enable weather prediction to better manage harvesting of produce, while soil sensors can help to monitor and manage crop growth in real time. The use of data is also critical for smart farming infrastructure as it helps to predict crop yield, it added.

Some African nations have already begun to embrace smart farming and are reaping the benefits.

Ghana has over 15 million hectares of agricultural land, and monitoring and managing soil and crop conditions without the help of technology was next to impossible, leading to massive use of pesticides. This in turn rendered crops like maize and cassava potentially hazardous to Ghanaians and unfit for foreign markets.

This problem was solved by Acquahmeyer, a company that uses unmanned aerial vehicles to provide insights to farmers that allowed them to reduce pesticide use, increase crop yield, and boost profits.

In South Africa, Aerobotics, an agri-tech startup developed an early warning smart scouting platform that helped farmers identify potential pest and disease issues in crops.

Chen Yingqun in Beijing and agencies contributed to this story.