The science, business of agriculture

THERE has been so much talk about reviving the economy so that Zimbabwe regains its bread-basket status. This is an undeniably noble idea, but is this still a reliable economic model?

With the changes taking place in the global economy, is it not an opportune time to transition from a bread-basket to an innovation basket?

Agricultural growth is key to achieving an upper middle-income economy by 2030. Not only does agriculture guarantee inclusive sustained growth, but it affords food security as well.

In the 1990s, agriculture contributed 9-15 percent of GDP, 20-33 percent export revenue, and sustained 70 percent of the population.

This can be enhanced through innovation, which is a future-proof globally competitive development pillar.

The demand for food is unlimited and the economics behind its production are changing rapidly.

Therefore, for Zimbabwe’s agriculture-based economic development model to be sustainable, there is need to leverage on the Fourth Revolution.

An agriculture-driven innovation model, which dovetails and compliments the Transitional Stabilisation Programme is key.

There is a huge market for food. In 2007, Africa spent between $30 billion and $50 billion importing food.

Food security defines a situation where people have physical, social and economic access to sufficient food for a healthy and active life.

The global food security index (GFSI) is measured using affordability, availability, quality and safety, and covers 109 countries, which include 28 Sub-Saharan Africa (SAA) countries.

In 2017, nine of the ten lowest-ranked GFSI countries were from the SSA.

So, disruptive and leapfrogging innovation must be added to production systems.

Policy objectives, legal and regulatory frameworks must all be aligned to innovation.

The first step is to develop and align a national innovation policy which builds on an agrarian foundation.

The second step is to diffuse the innovation culture and competence achieved into all economic sectors.

Generally, the two approaches are used simultaneously.

A top-down innovation approach creates a Government-driven enabling environment for large-scale investment into infrastructure, research and technology deployment, which triggers spill-over effects.

On the other hand, bottom-up innovation enables successful adoption of technology to meet local needs and challenges.

Productivity

Every effort must be made to increase production and productivity.

Zimbabwe’s 2016 maize production stood at 0,9 tonnes per hectare compared to nine tonnes in Brazil and 11 tonnes in the US.

Our maize productivity is ten times below global averages. This a strain on both margins and profit.

Experts estimate that Africa’s agriculture sector receives less than five percent of lending from financial institutions due to small landholder risks, uncertain property rights and inadequate policy and regulatory frameworks.

Even if funds are made available, without innovation the allocations will simply be swallowed by process inefficiencies.

Further, without innovation, it is difficult to attract quality investors into the sector.

There is scope to translate the mobile money services success into a fintech industry that delivers innovative agriculture solutions.

For instance, 500 000 farmers in Tanzania benefit from a financial solution that enables buying inputs on credit, selling produce and buying insurance using the mobile phone.

The Kenyan One-Acre Fund enables funding, procurement, timely and convenient distribution of inputs.

Farmers use M-Pesa to conveniently make repayments which are usually matched to cash flow and household finances.

Smallholder farmers require flexible financial products to manage their lumpy and seasonal income.

While the easiest route to achieve growth in agriculture is to expand the land under production, this comes at a cost to the environment.

The innovation basket strategy involves accelerating information-intensive, knowledge-based and precision agriculture techniques.

For example, satellite positioning systems, data collection sensors, geo-information systems and rate application are used to deliver information on seeds types, seed dropping time, size of crop land, water, nutrients, climate, plant growth, harvesting time and yields to farmers and policy makers.

R&D

In the past 20 years, research and development (R&D) has increased by 20 percent in SSA. But investments have been incredibly higher in China and India.

Zimbabwe can potentially collaborate with other countries on R&D to benefit from economies of scale.

Global technologies and practices can be localised to suit our own peculiar circumstances.

Already Zimbabwe has institutions such as Chibero, Gwebi, Mlezu, Rio Tinto and Esigodini agricultural colleges; Kushinga Phikelela National Farmer Training Centre; and Mazowe Veterinary College. There are also research centres such as Sirdc.

These assets can be used to promote innovation in the sector.

But these institutions and hubs should be kitted with appropriate digital technologies to ensure that knowledge and information can be collected and disseminated in a cost-effective way.

This cannot be difficult considering that Zimbabwe’s mobile communication penetration rate currently stands at 97 percent.

The key is to ensure that farms have high quality and affordable connectivity to enable complete digital integration with the rest of the world.

Agriculture extension services, which were successful in the 1980s and 1990s, can be recreated using digital platforms.

About 1, 2 million farmers in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, and Niger use Digital Green, a low-cost video-based platform that offers best farming practice lessons similar to agriculture extension.

Ghana-based AgroCenta deploys mobile and web technologies that bring farming advice, weather forecasts and market information to farmers who are generally offline due to barriers in connectivity, literacy, or language.

Drones — which are increasingly used for precision crop spraying, aerial photography, for soil and water survey —have also become an integral component of modern agriculture.

Some of the key innovations in the sector also include improved irrigation techniques, software designed to improve water reservoir retention, multiple cropping and the use of seed varieties that produce drought-tolerant crops.

Water-saving sensors that use wireless and smart water management systems can be used. Zenvus, a Nigerian precision farming system, measures soil temperature, nutrients, and vegetative health to help farmers apply the right fertiliser and optimally irrigate their farms.

SunCulture provides drip irrigation systems that use solar energy to pump water from any source, making irrigation affordable.

Green Revolution

Research by rubiem Innovations shows Zimbabwe’s economic situation today is no different from that which obtained in some Asian countries in the 1960s.

These countries wanted to industrialise, but slow agricultural growth and poorly resourced peasant farmers caused food shortages.

However, they launched the “green revolution”, which was a precursor to industrialisation.

Through this strategy, Asia managed to transition from food deficits to surpluses within 25 years.

This success created jobs, reduced prices and drove demand.

In essence, innovation helps digital agripreneurs to start agro-companies that have a better understanding of their rural context, giving them an advantage over large corporates.

It also helps overcome challenges such as fragmented markets, lack of scale and cultural barriers.

In addition, innovation improves collaborative links from farmers to agribusinesses and consumers in the agriculture supply chain.

Global markets are easy to access through digital technologies.

Some African countries have begun relying on ICT to improve on economic management and productivity.

For example, Botswana’s Livestock Identification Trace-back System tags cattle with radio frequency identification devices.

Information is transmitted to a central database which enables EU certification for the country’s beef exports.

Data harvested this way is banked for use by livestock farmers as well as State veterinary services and health authorities.

As a country that prides itself for having a rich human resource, the country has to develop mass produced low-cost farm mechanisation equipment.

It’s sad that the country has been producing engineers and scientists who have not gone past the ox-drawn plough for several generations.

But the importance of technologies is not limited to productivity alone, it also impacts on value addition.

Over-reliance on semi-processed and unprocessed commodities makes the economy susceptible to global price shocks.

So, government has to seriously invest in technologies to boost output in agriculture.

Rwanda’s success in lifting most of its people out of poverty is strongly linked to successes in agriculture.

Quite observably agriculture as a science sustains agriculture as a business.

Just as Zimbabwe took the lead role through the land reform, so, too, should must it assert itself in innovating in the agricultural sector. Dr Dennis Magaya is CEO of rubiem Innovations. Feedback: Dennis@rubiem.com, +263717770666 , Twitter @Dennis_Magaya and @Innovatihub