ICTworks

What is e-Agriculture Strategy?

An e-Agriculture strategy is using innovative digital technology solutions like precision agriculture, drones, big data, predictive analytics, and blockchain to improve social and economic outcomes for smallholder farmers.

e-Agriculture programs aim to increase food security by helping smallholder farmers improve modern ICT4Ag farming methods and access to markets. Agricultural ICT4D strategies encompass the full agricultural value chain and includes adjacent technologies like digital financial services and geographic information systems.

Communication in Agriculture

Smallholder farmers have limited knowledge, services, and technologies available to them. They typically need support to adopt modern farming methodologies.

Agriculture technology solutions focus on extension services for farmers to adopt new technologies and innovation. ICTs can amplify the efforts of the extension agents to help farmers plan what crops to grow, source inputs for crop cultivation, and selling their produce in local market.

Chatbots offer an exciting opportunity for governments to engage farmers on the social media platforms where farmers already congregate. For example:

• Facebook chatbots are a popular way to answer basic questions or help farmers apply for government support services.
• SMS text message chatbots can also help private sector companies develop new business leads and educate extension agents on their services.

ICT communication tools can play a crucial role in supporting farmers to access new inputs, credit, and markets with personalized and customized services.

Examples of e-Agriculture Programs

The potential to achieve high impact at the farm-level requires appropriate technology and adoption methodologies. International development organizations can use e-Agriculture communication programs like those below to support ICTforAg value chain ecosystems in developing countries.