Digitalisation in Agriculture
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Introduction
With the agriculture sector being pivotal for sustaining the livelihoods of people living in rural areas, and the provision of food & income, information and communication technologies (ICTs) present a tremendous opportunity to harness the sector’s full potential and ‘leave no one behind’. ICTs offer solutions for rural populations that help to improve productivity, to enhance food and nutrition security, to access markets, and to earn and even significantly increase their income. ICTs have cross-cutting transformative potential that can accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of rural development, specifically SDG 4 – Quality Education, SDG5 – Gender Equality and SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.[1]
- ↑ GIZ, SNRD Africa. (2018). Harnessing the chances of digitalisation for rural development: Lessons-learnt in German-funded rural development projects.
ICTs can benefit the agricultural sector by offering farmers services that improve their access to inputs, financial services and markets, by gathering and disseminating information, and by facilitating social learning and exchange. In Africa, the majority of these services still rely on SMS and voice-based systems, but the increasing smartphone penetration holds promise of a new world of services for the continent’s young rural population keen on technology. Yet, it is important to tailor high-tech ICT solutions to smallholders’ needs and their existing skills and capabilities to use advanced technologies. Additionally, much depends on finding the sustainable ICT4Ag business models needed to promote the uptake of internet-supported solutions also in the poorest parts of the world.[1]
Over the past five years, ICT4Ag has become the most widely adopted acronym for the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the agricultural sector. ICT4Ag encompasses all ICT’s that are/can be used in the field of agriculture, and which range from older technologies like (analog) video, radio and television to computing, internet, remote sensing, mobile and digital broadcasting. ICT adoption in the agricultural sector has, however, started relatively late. This may be attributed to the perception of agriculture as a difficult environment, and its low salience in the donor agenda until relatively recently. The increasing attention was stimulated by advances in technology that made the cost of ICT services lower, information and data easier to access, store and exchange. The development of innovative business models and partnerships played their role as well.[2]
The GSMA report estimates that, at the end of 2019, there were 477 million unique mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa. This number accounts for 45% of the population and continues to rise, as well as smartphone adoption. GSMA expects this number to double by 2025. The number of mobile users will grow from 272 million in 2019 to 475 million in 2025. As for mobile data consumption in sub-Saharan Africa, it is expected to grow more than fourfold by 2025.[3] Hence, ICT4Ag’s importance for the agricultural sector will only expand.
Blockchain for agriculture
Blockchain is an emerging digital technology that has a potential to address the gaps of the traceability of products as well as accountability and transparency of agricultural value chains. In agriculture and food supply chains, where numerous actors are involved from the raw production to the supermarket shelf, there is a need to provide a distributed, peer-to-peer, yet secure, way to perform transactions among different parties. Blockchain technology allows to secure transactions by opening them to all stakeholders in the chain, thus keeping a consistent view and agreement among the participants.[4] Removing the role of intermediaries and increasing transparency helps to reduce corruption. Below are several examples of applications of blockchain in agriculture:
Food Traceability
Food Traceability facilitates the identification of product provenance and can increase consumers’ trust and loyalty. Companies such as Walmart and Kroger, Nestle, Unilever, Cargill and Carrefour embraced the technology and included it into their supply chains.[5]
Land Governance
Blockchain can support Land Governance. Proving ownership of land and property in the Global South sometimes presents a challenge. The Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) are a secure, fast, and immutable method to register land titles, providing greater legal clarity to land tenure systems, avoiding corruption and fraud, and unlock capital. Physical assets registered on the DLT, such as land titles, can be used as a collateral.[5]
Financial services
Blockchain technology affects the way banks, credit card companies and investment funds operate. It makes banking transactions and provision of financial and insurance services faster, cheaper, more secure and inclusive. The banking industry has started testing the blockchain technology with cryptocurrencies and other assets that can be exchanged on blockchain directly without involvement of a third party that would normally charge for services. A number of banks such as ING, Société Générale, Barclays, Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas, large corporations like Unilever, Sainsbury’s and Sappi as well as fintech start-ups started using DLTs to track physical supply chains and unlock access to financing for sustainable sourcing.[5]
ICT solutions are especially promising to bridge the gap of access to financial services in the countries of the Global South and provide financial services to people living in remote areas, lacking services commonly available in cities. The rise of smartphone penetration and improvements in connectivity indicate that the possibility that farmers could harness blockchain’s technology full potential seems realistic.[3] Yet, even if blockchain offers advanced security, regulatory and legal frameworks are crucial to guide the use of blockchain technology in food supply chains and possible security risks.[5]
Case Studies
Comparative Financial Analysis of Irrigation Solutions
In order to compare different irrigation solutions from a financial analysis perspective, the main costs of all components and factors need to be determined, including the grading earthworks needed, the costs of headworks, of purchasing the pumping system, the water conveyance system, of irrigation management, and labour costs. The Toolbox on Solar Powered Irrigation Systems provides practitioners with the excel-based PAYBACK tool which allows a comparative assessment between income and three different irrigation pumping options. For a thorough comparison also operational costs need to be set against each other among the different irrigation types. This relationship strongly varies depending on the component that is being analysed. For example, surface irrigation approaches require a high degree of land development, but usually work with simple water abstraction installations. In turn, pressurized systems require a bore well, implying higher initial investment costs, but do not require sophisticated land development. Irrigation water is an important production factor in agriculture, and the extent to which farm households depend on irrigation for their production depends on the geographical location, the local hydrological and soil conditions and on the actual crop water requirements. Depending on the irrigation method applied, capital and operational costs may vary and thereby impact farm budgets in different ways. Read more…
Costs and Benefits of Clean-Energy-Technologies in the Milk Value Chain
Despite the importance of the milk sector for income generation among small-scale farmers in Tanzania, Kenya, and Tunisia, only a reduced amount has access to extension services, which could improve their productivity. Raw milk is usually transported to milk collection facilities, where it is often rejected due to low quality, as it is not cooled during transportation. The lack of a reliable electricity grid hinders most rural households from using adequate refrigeration systems. Cooling technologies can significantly improve milk quality and add value along the milk value chain. Since grid electricity does not reach many rural areas, off-grid renewable energy (RE) solutions to cool milk can be a viable option. Biogas domestic milk chillers and solar milk coolers are attractive from a financial point of view and have socio-economic and environmental net co-benefits. Policies, financing mechanisms and capacity building activities to facilitate the adoption of renewable energy cooling solutions for milk include: the development of a clear national strategy for the milk sector, strict milk quality standards and a price premium for quality refrigerated milk, the establishment of controls and fines against illegal milk commercialization, eradication of counterfeit RE products, financial incentives, extension services, technical assistance, information programmes and training. Costs and Benefits of Clean-Energy-Technologies in Kenya’s Vegetable Value Chain Horticulture is the third leading agricultural subsector in Kenya (after dairy and tea), and it is a growing market. However, small-scale producers in the vegetable sector face many challenges such as erratic rainfall, high and volatile energy prices, low crop yields, post-harvest losses of perishable crops, seasonal variations in product prices, poor access to market information, weak transportation infrastructure, and lack of access to modern energy for productive uses. Overcoming them could help achieve a more constant level of production and income. Both solar cold storage and small solar-powered water pumping technologies, assessed here as case studies, showed positive financial and economic returns. Adoption of such clean energy technologies in the vegetable value chain can be facilitated by establishing guarantee schemes as well as specific micro-credit lines and support services for farmers and cooperatives; setting minimum performance standards for renewable energy (RE) equipment; educating and training practitioners on the benefits and effective use of solar technologies and raising awareness of technological and financing opportunities. Read more…
Costs and Benefits of Clean Energy Technologies in the Philippines’ Rice Value Chain
Small-scale rice farmers from the Global South often face difficulties in reaching milling services and usually do not have access to grid electricity. Local renewable energy systems can provide electricity and heat for productive activities, hence improving production and reducing food losses in remote rural areas. In off-grid areas the gasification of rice husks and solar-powered domestic rice milling interventions, assessed here as case studies, can be financially viable as well as provide social and environmental co-benefits. Adoption of clean energy technologies in the rice value chain can be facilitated through targets and strategies for rural electrification, the introduction of financing and insurance products, technical assistance to manufacturers and consumers, capacity building and improving energy literacy. Costs and Benefits of Clean Energy Technologies in the Philippines' Rice Value Chain.pdf
Publications & Tools
Excel-based or online available tools allow assessing the viability and the environmental impact of such interventions. However, as these can be unfriendly to a non-professional audience, several online tools are available to support small and medium businesses in performing a cost-benefit evaluation of their investment in an energy-food context.Read more…
WinDASI: A Software for Cost Benefit Analysis of Investment Projects
Developed for current or future practitioners in Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) of investment projects, working in public administrations, in NGO’s, professional organizations or consulting firms, WinDASI allows calculating a) flows of physical quantities of outputs, inputs and investment items; b) flows of current, discounted and cumulative costs, benefits and net benefits; c) flows of incremental (With-Without project) current, discounted and cumulative net benefits; and d) project indicators such as the Net Present Value (NPV), the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), the Benefit/Cost Ratio (BCR), the Switching Values (SVs) and Sensitivity Analysis. The tool addresses normal and phased mode of calculation and comparisons of different projects alternative scenarios. Read more…
FAOVCA-Tool – A Software for Value Chain Analysis
Value chains act like socio-economic links between upstream and downstream agents, connected through technical, economic, territorial, institutional and social relationships. Value chain analysis explores the structure of these links and relationships, building accounts for the different agents and analysing their revenues, costs, value added and profits. This enables a consistent accounting framework for the whole value chain and identifies bottlenecks and opportunities for value chain development. It is suitable to assess evidence-based policy options and monitoring of their impact. The FAO VCA-tool 3.1 is particularly useful to store and organize data for different agents, structure the value chain accounting framework, calibrate and compute flows, shadow prices, competitiveness and protection indicators. Further, it allows building and comparing alternative value chains scenarios for policy impact assessment and performance monitoring. Tool and manuals are freely available online on FAO’s EASYPol platform. Read more…
Toolbox on Solar Powered Irrigation Systems – Payback Tool
The SPIS Toolbox is designed to enable advisors, service providers and practitioners in the field of solar irrigation to provide broad hands-on guidance to end-users, policy makers and financiers. Risks related to system efficiency, financial viability and the unsustainable use of water resources can thus be minimized. The Payback Tool evaluates economic, environmental and social aspects of different energy sources for irrigation in order to help operators to assess the economic viability of different power supply options and water pumping technologies. The tool assesses the economics associated with different energy sources for irrigation including the cost, price, and payback time. Read more…
RuralInvest – A Participatory Approach to Identifying and Preparing Small/Medium Scale Agricultural and Rural Investments
RuralInvest, developed by the FAO Investment Centre, answers the need for support to local investment by offering a series of modules. These provide a range of materials and training courses such as technical manuals, custom developed software, user guides and instructor’s materials. The modules include guidelines to assist local technicians working with communities and other rural groups to assess their investment needs. Further, the modules provide a simplified methodology and approach to facilitate the conversion of general ideas into specific investment profiles. For large investments, a detailed project formulation and analysis including all information concerning the viability can be compiled using the software which allows calculating working capital requirements and annual cash flows, as well as Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The software can generate a variety of reports in either electronic or printed form. The complete report is typically of 15-20 pages, depending upon the complexity of the investment. The RuralInvest software is designed to be operable on the Internet but can also be installed directly on computers of field technicians. It is applicable for any agency, project, organization or private investor managing funds for small and medium scale agricultural and rural investments. Read more…
- ↑ GIZ, SNRD Africa. (2018). Harnessing the chances of digitalisation for rural development: Lessons-learnt in German-funded rural development projects.
- ↑ GIZ, SNRD Africa. (2016). Use of ICT for Agriculture in GIZ projects – Status quo, opportunities and challenges.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 GSM Association. (2020). The Mobile Economy: sub-Saharan Africa 2020.
- ↑ Kamilaris, A., Prenafeta-Boldú, F.X., Fonts, A. (2018). Unlocking the potential of blockchain for agriculture. The Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA). ICT Update, Issue 88.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Addison, Ch., Boto, I., Heinen, Th., Lohento, K. (2019). Opportunities of Blockchain for agriculture. Brussels Rural Development Briefings. A series of meetings on ACP-EU policy Development issues. Briefing No 55.
