Investments in agritech (alone) will need to double to at least $10bn a year if the world’s smallholder farmers are to help feed a global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050.
The revelation during the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2019 that ends in Accra, Ghana today was the position of CABI, an international non-profit organisation, which says it improves people’s lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.
Dennis Rangi, CABI’s director general, Development, speaking as part of a panel discussion on the subject of digital innovations to strengthen the resilience for smallholders in African food systems, said the financial burden must be met by the private sector if global food security is to be ensured and world poverty and hunger eradicated.
CABI in a statement citing AgFunder, noted global investment in agritech – including technology such as farm robots to feed and weed, GPS and drones to map and monitor soil and satellite data to predict the spread of crop pests – was around $4.6bn in 2015.
However, Rangi believes the public sector needs to more than double its annual investment in digital infrastructure and research – particularly in respect of making data open – to enable the delivery of digital innovations which not only help feed Africa but the world.
According to Rangi, “Technological innovations in agriculture, in all its forms, present us with genuine answers to extremely difficult problems. However, unless we can encourage more investment from the public sector and innovation from the private sector to deliver these solutions at scale, no amount of digital agriculture will help solve the world’s food crisis.
“The message is simple: we need to more than double annual investment in agritech to $10bn if we are to feed the world’s growing population projected to reach 10 billion by 2050.”
Rangi told delegates at the forum that CABI’s Plantwise programme is just one example that is delivering impact at scale – having so far reached over 31 million farmers in 34 countries with plant health information, which, in respect of fighting crop pests and diseases, promotes adaptation and resilience.
He added that Plantwise’s open access Knowledge Bank, Factsheet App, e-plant clinics with data collection – which allows for real-time tracking of pests (plus linkage with the Pest Risk Information Service (PRISE) project) – are already putting data and knowledge in the hands of extension workers and farmers keen on growing more and losing less to crop pests and diseases.
