BOTSWANA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE JOURNEY TO TECHNOLOGY FOR AGRICULTURE
When is tech innovation in agriculture a leap too far? Well- this is the question we seeked to address last week when we met with Prof. Rees (Vice Challencer of BUAN). Prof Rees is a British National and Permanent Resident of South Africa. He graduated in 1982 with BA (Hons) Biochemistry, Class 1, Oxford University. MA, and DPhil from Oxford University in 1985.
“I have joined Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources as Vice Chancellor. Together with my team of executive and senior management, we will work to transform BUAN into a fully configured research oriented institution, which will focus on advanced technologies for agriculture, the environment and the bioeconomy,” said Prof Rees via Linkedin
Throughout the discussion with Prof. Rees we achieved “The bright picture of Agriculture in Botswana”. The background we shared and discussed was centred around these facts; Many economies across Sub-Saharan Africa remain predominantly agricultural and, due to an increase in global food demand and the availability of arable land across the continent — 60% of global uncultivated arable land is in Africa, according to the African Development Bank -, there seems to be a growing consensus around the idea of Africa as the final frontier of the Green Revolution in agriculture and the potential bread basket of the world. That technology has been revolutionising the way agriculture is conceived today is no surprise and, being the largest employer in the continent — over two thirds of total employment in Africa still come from agriculture -, the attention shift towards tech farming could be seen as the product of the increasing confidence in the potential role innovation can play in dramatically enhancing productivity and working standards.
We are in a crucial time for Botswana, and the broader Southern Africa region when it comes to technology and innovation for Agriculture. Well it is general knowledge that we are in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and we can already see that this revolution will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. Powerful technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence are transforming how we live and work and opening the door to solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. New economies have been created, exploiting the promise of technology, bringing with them the potential of new jobs and new ways of working. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will bring many challenges and opportunities to Botswana, and Africa.
NGWANA AFRICA is committed to accelerating the pace of digital transformation in Botswana, in a trusted and responsible manner, through key partnerships and unlocking investments to realise the economic impact, especially in the area of Agriculture and Technology for farmers. These partnerships and instruments we have designed will open up investments that are focused in four core areas: Infrastructure, Innovation, Skills Development and Trust for the Agriculture Value Chain.
The Agriculture industry in Botswana has been selected as one of the focal areas of our diversification. Well its very simple why we chose Agriculture- Agriculture is one of the industries with potential for high job absorption capacity and impact on food security in the country. With our expertise and experience of the 4th Industrial Revolution we can have an impact within the Agriculture sector by investing in and supporting technology companies (AgriTech). AgriTech for us shall define some areas such as ;
1. Advice on the development and operation of the Product;
2. Product acceptance testing;
3. Advice on the marketing of the Product;
4. Assist and collaborate with any Strategic Partners in respect of the Product;
5. Provide reasonable access to the country’s research and development outputs together with interchange of information, know-how and skills;
The way forward
To enable a major leap towards the use of the internet and technology to help farmers practice sustainable agriculture, two major foundational bridges need to be built:
1. Education
2. Infrastructures
The emphasis on information retention and regurgitation leads to developing skill-sets that are dangerously mismatched with the distinctive prerogatives of the internet era, where information abounds and where a key trap consist of being able to select relevant resources. Through this lens, finding the right strategy to transfer knowledge becomes the fundamental quest for emerging companies and governments as the failure to deliver accurate inputs results in a sterile dialogue with farmers who today lack the adequate education to make use of internet and mobile sources in a consistent manner.
Although the younger generations are more suited to adopt digital solutions to improve farming, functional illiteracy remains a widespread concern across rural Africa. In this sense, it becomes evident that infrastructural and basic market linkages need to be established for people to be able to effectively take advantage of the new worlds of information available to them in the real world. It is highly promising that information and research can traverse the rivers and mountains of Kenya to reach farmers in remote areas, but tomatoes and maize still have to travel back along physical infrastructure and without one the other is not of much use.
Finally, what we conclude is that anyone looking to work with farmers has to break out of short-term project cycles and establish the longer-term trust required for them to be willing to break conservative practices and unlock the next leap forward in sustainable agriculture.
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