Publications /
Book / Report

Back
Unlocking Africa’s agricultural potential
Authors
Aubrey Hruby
September 20, 2023

The rise of agriculture technology (AgTech) solutions in Africa has opened significant avenues to transform food systems and tackle long-standing obstacles to enhance smallholder productivity. To effectively expand these promising, yet nascent, AgTech solutions, collaborative efforts involving African governments, development partners, and AgTech innovators are essential. Scaling these solutions requires African governments to establish comprehensive digital-infrastructure and development partners to prioritize investments in digital solutions tailored to alleviate market and financial barriers faced by smallholder farmers.

Fostering economic growth in Africa’s agricultural sector hinges on millions of smallholder farmers effectively implementing new technologies.

This issue brief explores the factors that have contributed to scaling prominent AgTech companies in Africa. Additionally, the brief examines a case study from India, where the digital revolution has helped AgTech solutions reach smallholder farmers. Drawing insights from this analysis, the brief provides recommendations to African governments and development partners to establish environments conducive to AgTech companies’ growth, thereby contributing to economic advancement and prosperity.

This issue brief is part of an ongoing partnership between The Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) and the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

RELATED CONTENT

  • December 17, 2019
    Across Africa, many rural communities still depend on manual and animal power for their farm needs, whether it is for production, harvesting or postharvest activities. In fact, in sub-Saharan Africa, engine power represents a meagre 10 per cent of all energy used on farms, compared to 50 per cent in developing regions. Without access to mechanised tools and technologies, farming is a tough, laborious and time-consuming process. Farmers are often left with small harvests, low income ...
  • Authors
    December 11, 2019
    The Atlantic Current’s 6th edition provides overview, fresh insights, latest data, and broader analysis on the Atlantic space’s current challenges, as well as their implications for the South. Different chapters explore emerging trends and critical issues, such as the World Trade Organization reform, Brexit and the future of EU, the expansion of militancy in the Sahel and Coastal Africa, the role of cultural diplomacy and the deepening of Sino-African relations within a shifting an ...
  • Authors
    October 30, 2019
    Subsidizing fertilizer prices has been a popular policy tool to increase fertilizer use, but should it be? The main message of this Policy Brief is that it should not be, despite its appeal to politicians and recipient farmers alike. Instead, policy makers should seriously consider a holistic approach to promoting fertilizer. A holistic approach has the potential of effectively addressing a range of key interlocking constraints which condemn smallholders to low input, low productivi ...
  • Authors
    Tharcisse Guedegbe
    September 27, 2019
    This paper is about the basic principles which should guide fertilizer policy for smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa It is not about detailed country-specific prescriptions on the “how” of policy. This important task should constitute the substance of detailed country studies. The overarching goal here is to use fertilizer to spearhead and sustain an African Green Revolution (GR). In this paper, fertilizer use is not considered as an end in itself, but as a necessary mean ...
  • Authors
    Under the direction of
    Philippe Chalmin
    April 9, 2019
    Commodity prices were once again marked by significant volatility in 2017 and 2018. While there are many economic factors to explain this, politics were also present—trade tensions between China and the United States and, more generally, a rise in uncertainties—weighing upon the global macroeconomic outlook and the ‘dynamism of the markets’. Africa, which has countries with strong growth rates, has, however, been able to show solid economic performance, and this trajectory is not li ...
  • Authors
    Hamza Rkha Chaham
    April 3, 2019
    The author is an alumnus of the 2018 Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program Arable land per capita availability has been steadily decreasing over the last decades, from 0.5 hectare per capita in 1945 to 0.2 hectares per capita in 2016. Worldwide farmers have been, more or less, addressing the intensification challenge by incorporating new technologies, products, and techniques into their farming systems. The intensification challenge also implied a consolidation of the farming ...
  • Authors
    Abdelkabir Kamili
    November 14, 2018
    Le présent article expose, outre une analyse holistique du secteur national de production halieutique, les résultats d’un travail de recherche sur l’impact d’un éventuel changement des prix mondiaux des intrants (notamment le pétrole) et des produits de la pêche sur les aspects économiques et biologiques du secteur. Les résultats de ce travail indiquent que ce secteur a peu de réactivité face à la hausse du prix mondial des intrants, alors qu’en réaction à l’augmentation des prix à ...
  • Authors
    Tharcisse Guèdègbé
    October 25, 2018
    Le progrès économique et social du Maroc passe par des objectifs de croissance dans l’agriculture, secteur prioritaire dans les stratégies et les politiques de développement. Plus encore, les gains de productivité globale des facteurs sont déterminants pour l’amélioration du niveau de vie. Le présent travail de recherche a consisté à comprendre l’évolution de la performance du secteur agricole au Maroc, en étudiant les contributions relatives des facteurs de production et de la prod ...
  • October 18, 2018
    L'agriculture intelligente face au climat (AIC) est une approche qui permet de définir les mesures nécessaires pour transformer et réorienter les systèmes agricoles dans le but de souteni ...
  • Authors
    Mouhamadou Moustapha Ly
    Tharcisse Guedegbe
    September 19, 2018
    La ville de Kigali, au Rwanda, a accueilli du 5 au 8 septembre 2018 le forum de l’AGRA, devenant ainsi la capitale de l’agriculture africaine pendant ces quatre journées. Délégations gouvernementales, partenaires techniques et financiers, chercheurs, universitaires, investisseurs, producteurs, club de réflexion, entre autres, étaient en conclave pour faire l’état des lieux du secteur et mesurer les progrès accomplis sur la route de la transformation de l’agriculture africaine.  A t ...