We must harness agritech to help smallholder farmers
MICROSOFT’S AgriTech programme is investing in building the capabilities, competitiveness and innovation of a local technology company to develop and roll out high-impact solutions that will help smallholder farmers become more productive, commercially viable and sustainable.
As part of its multi-million dollar investment in agriculture, The Awareness Company in South Africa has been selected as the beneficiary of its AgriTech programme, whereby it will develop and roll out three high-impact solutions in the agricultural sector within the next year — positively impacting one of the country’s critical sectors, helping to drive growth and job creation.
The AgriTech programme’s main objective is to drive digital transformation in the agricultural sector by collaborating with a technology company that will develop high impact solutions and empower smallholder farmers.
Smallholder farmers face various challenges that prevent them from achieving their full potential.
Challenges are security concerns, a lack of infrastructure, access to competitive formal markets, production and business skills, funding and financial support to re-invest in farming activities, as well as compliance with food safety regulations and legislation.
Technology — specifically agritech — has the ability to empower our country’s smallholder farmers by enabling them to become more productive, efficient, competitive, commercially viable and sustainable.
However, many smallholder farmers are failing to leverage on available technologies that will allow them to graduate into commercial farmers.
Limited digitisation leads to low productivity, inefficiency and low levels of competitiveness due to a lack of actionable insights.
This is where the AgriTechprogramme and The Awareness Company come in.
The solutions that will be developed will enable smallholder farmers to improve efficiencies in their farming operations through the use of operational insights.
This will allow them to reduce costs of production, increase yields, strengthen linkages through the value chain and improve farm security.
The country’s smallholder farmers play a critical role in driving food security and economic participation, but they face specific and deep-rooted challenges, and the sector is typically underserved in terms of high-tech solutions.
The programme is a jumpstart that has enabled smallholder farmers to create and update products that synchronise with the work we have already done in the agricultural space to promote sustainable agriculture and food security through intelligent data.”
The Awareness Company was founded in 2018 with the objective of using intelligent data and insights to tackle real challenges.
Such solutions are driven by data, and the insights and intelligence tell a story about the farm and create stronger farmers by helping them become commercially viable — as well as giving them peace of mind.
The New Farmer