Heifer unveils digital agric initiative in Africa

Heifer International, a non-profit organisation focused on ending global hunger and poverty, has unveiled a Digital Agriculture Champions (DAC) initiative to deliver sustainable, cost-effective training modules for Africa’s smallholder farmers.

According to a statement made available to BusinessDay, the initiative will leverage exponential digital technologies as a key component in the design of signature programs covering 11 countries of Heifer’s operations in Africa.

“Heifer is committed to catalyzing ground-up engagement of the youth in Agriculture. The DAC initiative will foster the application of digital technology in agriculture, delivering solutions that address challenges faced by smallholder farmers at scale,” Adesuwa Ifedi, senior vice president Africa Programs in a statement.

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“The idea for the AYuTe Africa Challenge (AYuTe stands for Agriculture, Youth and Technology) was conceived by Heifer based on four decades of work as a trusted partner of African farmers—and seeing first-hand the stark difference between local farms that have access to new technologies and those that do not,” she added.

Heifer is advancing technology and mechanization to address some of the post-pandemic challenges across different agricultural value chains in Africa; investing in digital extension systems for training as a post-pandemic response strategy that will create efficient, scalable solutions for farmers and help boost the value chains in which they work.

The organisation is also committed to mentoring the youth who often constitute the extension staff, and is focused on empowering them to become digital champions with entrepreneurship skills to ensure quality services for farmers, and sustainable business models beyond the life of Heifer project interventions.

In accordance with this tech innovation drive, Heifer is working with Kuza Biashara, a digital social enterprise, as technical partner, to offer a bundled solution that provides personalized digital training and extension services to smallholder farmers in Africa.