To boost climate resilience: Experts, farmers discuss use of digital technology in agriculture.

The workshop brought together officials from government agencies, agritech companies, private sector operators, experts from national and international research institutions, and universities; farmers’ organisations, women and youth involved in agriculture value chains in the Central Africa region. 

Prof Kalame Fobissie, CEO FOKABS-Canada, an international organisation which contribute towards climate-resilient and low-carbon development solutions, said he had come to equipe the actors in the agricultural sector, with technology in view to fight climate change.

“We know that climate change is something happening every and it is greatly affecting the productivity of our farmers and how they do business. But again, part of the solution, is to go digital.  By the time they plant the seeds in their farm lands, to the time of harvest, how do they control pest, using artificial intelligence, Internet of things, data? How to capitalise on the new transformational digital era to increase productivity, sales and making sure that from production to consumption, digital solutions are bringing the most benefits to the population and to the government, is the main reason we are here to train participants from all the CEMAC countries," Prof Kalame Fobissie said.

Agriculture is the backbone of most African economies, and the sector employs more than half of the continent's population. 

The sector faces many challenges related to climate change, which is expected to negatively impact 56% of all crops in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, predicts that by 2050, crop productivity in sub‐Saharan Africa will have declined by 5% for maize, 14% for rice, and 22% for wheat, pushing many already vulnerable people, who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, deeper into poverty and food insecurity.

It is also estimated that by 2080, the negative impact of climate change on Africa's agricultural yields could be between 15% and 30%.

About 80% of Sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural land is managed by smallholders, who provide up to 70% of the continent's food supply. 

The said smallholders currently face major adaptation constraints, as they have the least capacity to adapt due to lack of resources to invest. 

Digital agricultural technologies, it was said, can support a smooth and efficient transition to sustainability and climate-resilience. 

Technological innovations, and increasing digitalisation such as mobile technologies and internet access, satellites and weather stations, drones, remote sensing technologies amongst others, offer the potential to accelerate the transformation of agriculture to and can help address the urgent challenges posed by climate change to agriculture and food security in Africa. 

To meet the challenges in the CEMAC zone and beyond, Oluwabunmi Ajilore, Program Officer at the Global Center on Adaptation, GCA, a global organisation that accelerates climate adaptation, noted that they have worked with government and stakeholders across regions to help them mainstream climate adaptation within their planning and build climate resilience. 

They implemented the African Triple Adaption program with the support of the African Development Bank, to ensure that climate resilience is mainstreamed into development fundings across Africa. 

The workshop in Douala, it was said, fell within the digital climate adversory services capacity building training for Central African. 

Participants, will after the workshop be able to design digital climate adversory services for the subregion