Transforming Africa’s Food System with Digital Technologies

27th November 2019
by secretary

Paepard

26 November 2019. African countries have made considerable progress in increasing agricultural productivity and reducing hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. But continued population growth, urbanization, changing diets, and climate change are putting pressure on food systems not only to provide more food but also to make more diverse and nutritious foods available and accessible.

New digital technologies and services are already making an impact on how food is being produced, processed, marketed, traded, and consumed across the continent. How African countries position themselves to harness and deploy digital technologies will determine the future competitiveness of African agriculture and its contribution to African economies.

This seminar explored how African countries can develop a “digitalization ecosystem” to help foster growth and competitiveness in the continent’s value chains. Participants will also discuss the institutional and policy innovations that have already been implemented by African governments as well as efforts by the private sector and ag-tech startups to increase the development and use of digital tools and services in agriculture.

Ousmane Badiane, Director for Africa, IFPRI (Presentation)
Debisi Araba, Regional Director for Africa, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (Presentation)
Katrin Glatzel, Program Head, IFPRI (Presentation)
Farbod Youssefi, Program Manager, World Bank Group (Presentation)
Moderator David Spielman, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI

Byte by byte: Policy innovation for transforming Africa’s food system with digital technologies

See also: PAEPARD blogpost. 25/06 The Malabo Montpellier Forum in Kigali

The report Byte by byte: policy innovation for transforming Africa’s food system with digital technologies presents findings of an analysis of seven African countries at the forefront of digital development in the agricultural sector.

The Malabo Montpellier Panel published the report Byte by byte – policy innovation for transforming Africa’s food system with digital technologies in late June 2019.

The report summarises the key findings of a systematic analysis of what seven African countries at the forefront of progress on digitalisation of the agriculture sector have done right. It analyses which institutional and policy innovations were implemented and which actions by the private sector and agro-technology start-ups were taken to increase the development and use of digital tools and services in the agricultural value chain.

The objective of this report is to identify interventions that work and benefit farmers and other actors in the value chain and recommend options for policy and programme innovation that allow countries to develop a digitalisation ecosystem in which digital technologies and services can be developed and used to foster growth and competitiveness in Africa’s agricultural value chains.

More information: Malabo Montpellier Panel (2019). Byte by Byte: Policy Innovation for Transforming Africa’s Food System with Digital Technologies. Dakar, Senegal. June 2019

Source: PAEPARD FEED

Transforming Africa’s Food System with Digital Technologies

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