Africa-Korea Innovation Summit Roots For Agri-tech

A two-day World Bank Africa-Korea Agritech Innovation summit was concluded on Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya, with a call on stakeholders in the Agriculture sector to embrace agri-tech. The summit aimed at identifying disruptive Agriculture technologies (DATs), according to a joint statement issued at the end of the summit.

“Correct policies on broadband penetration need to be discussed with special emphasis on making data and internet as a public good the way water and electricity are. Data and internet must be accessible, affordable and reliable”, reads the statement in part.

In addition, the summit recommended deliberate policy incentives that promote the affordability of Digital devices, such as smartphones with WI-Fi enabled applications, to be written and implemented by the ministries responsible for ICT. The summit also recommended that the agri-tech solutions and startups must be highly effective yet simple to learn, to easily facilitate uptake among the targeted farmers who have limited IT skills.

It was also recommended that Ministries of Agriculture need to appreciate and understand the role of technology in disease control, climate change mitigation, and, instant farmer advisory to compensate for gaps in extension systems and traceability. This is to enable Ministries of Agriculture to design policies and strategic plans that prioritize the use of digital technologies in the entire Agriculture value chains

“If every Agricultural research product to be released is to have an integrated IT e-agriculture solution or component, farmers will easily get along,” added the statement.

Uganda’s Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Frank Tumwebaze, said that all players in the agri-tech ecosystem (Innovators start-ups, policymakers, and farmers) must discuss and agree on which broadband policies can work for, to ensure universal connectivity.

He added that the internet service providers (ISPs) need to be strictly regulated on issues of quality of services and that there is a need to facilitate linkages between farmers and e-agriculture start-ups, such that the former can appreciate that the latter has a solution for them.

“With the support of the World Bank, Uganda is currently implementing the e-voucher system to link farmers to inputs to ensure quality of inputs and traceability issues”, he commented.

Tumwebaze noted that the two-day summit presented them an opportunity to discuss and agree together on how to tackle challenges in the Agriculture sector.

“We need positive and not negative technology disruption. So when we talk about disruption, let’s emphasize the positive change side that comes with it”, he added.