Africa’s agricultural landscape, often vulnerable to the harsh elements and varied weather patterns, is seemingly evolving into a hub of innovation that reaches far beyond its traditional roots.



It was not long ago that farmers on the continent had to rely on birds like the Red-billed Quelea and African Cuckoo for rain predictions. Now, various types of technology are taking their place, equipping agricultural stakeholders with the tools they need to weather the proverbial storms.



For example, thousands of people in West Africa, in particular, are able to receive hyperlocal weather forecasts, via SMS, from sources like Ignitia, to combat the changing climate.



“Extreme weather is becoming more frequent and intense across Africa, and unfortunately, conventional forecasting weather models—optimized for temperate regions like Europe—struggle to capture heat-driven rainfall dynamics and extremes such as heavy thunderstorms,” explains Andrew Lala, CEO at Ignitia, a company specializing in weather and climate intelligence across Africa, Latin-America and South-East Asia.



“You need to get rainfall forecasting correct at different time horizons, if you’re going to help farmers understand how good or bad the upcoming rainy season will be and how to mitigate any in-season rainfall challenges like a delayed rainy season onset or erratic dry spells.”



Staying alert to problematic weather patterns has profound ramifications.



The floods in Senegal towards the end of 2024 were severe, reportedly submerging 16,000 hectares of crops, including rice, corn, and okra. A report from the Senegal River Delta, stated, at the time, that around 250,000 people were left facing food insecurity.



Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) Humanitarian Situation Report from October 2024 indicated that a drought in Zambia has caused food shortages for around 4.95 million people.



The need enrich farmers with information to adapt—while minimizing the risk of yield collapse—and to identify optimal conditions for planting and harvesting is crucial.



“By equipping farmers with six-month rainy season insights, you can help them identify planting windows, and identify drought or flood conditions and pest pressures early so that they can build resilience either through planting shorter cycle crops, investing in drought tolerant seed, or connecting them with crop insurance products in the case of extremes,” Lala tells FORBES AFRICA.



Africa has a history of food insecurity. According to Professor David Luke in How Africa Eats: Trade, Food Security, and Climate Risks, over 340 million people are suffering from this.



UNICEF also reports that one in three children in Africa, under the age of five, lives in food poverty.



This challenge has plagued the continent, with climate change, a lack of resources, and conflict as the main protagonists, highlighting the need for modern tools and predictive technology to counteract potential calamities.



South African-based Aerobotics combines thermal-imagery drones and satellites with artificial intelligence (AI) to identify areas of underperformance caused by irrigation issues, nutrient



deficiencies, pests, and diseases. This provides farms with precision data focused on economically maximizing yield.



Producers can target specific areas of concern through per-plant analyses, resulting in more efficient use of fertilizers and pesticides, while optimizing irrigation, and enabling strategic labor deployment.



“Thermal-imagery drones and satellite analytics are reshaping the future of farming across Africa. By turning invisible stress into actionable data, this technology allows farmers to detect issues like water stress, disease, and nutrient deficiencies earlier than ever before,” says Aerobotics Chief Commercial Officer, Vic van den Berg.



Also among the latest in agritech is smart sensors. Able to measure soil moisture, temperature and pH levels, farmers need no longer play the guessing game as they are supported by real-time data to make informed decisions.



For agricultural stakeholders, knowledge is priceless—spotting disease, optimizing growing conditions, and preparing for harsh weather could even mean the difference between widespread food shortages and national stability.



However, a challenge to the use of tech in Africa is digital literacy and limited access to power and smartphones in rural regions, which can then hinder the potential of smart farming, particularly at the smallholder level.



Without the necessary education and infrastructure, farmers may struggle to adopt modern techniques aimed at boosting productivity and resilience. This digital divide leaves rural communities more vulnerable than ever.



“Millions of farmers can benefit from technology,” notes Lala.



While the revolutionary capabilities of smart farming won’t materialize overnight, the growing trend of equipping farms of all sizes with yield-boosting technologies signifies a noteworthy shift in agricultural practice across Africa.



The seed has been planted; now is the time to support its growth.

Empowering Farming: Farmer’s Technological Touch – Managing and Analyzing the Farm through Virtual Screen on Tablet

When Agri Meets Tech: How Data Is Shaping The Future of Farming

There are 600 million smallholder farmers around the world working on less than two hectares of land. These farmers are estimated to produce 28%-31% of total crop production and 30%-34% of food supply on 24% of gross agricultural area.



The most-funded sector on the continent, according to TechCrunch, is fintech. Unfortunately, reports, experts and our profiles tell us a story of how difficult it is to source venture capital funding on the continent for agriculture.



“The answer to that is quite straightforward,” says Dr Mandla Mpofu, the Managing Director of Omnia’s Agriculture Division. “It’s the risk of the business.” 



The pressure on Africa’s food supply will require substantial investment to guarantee food security, as Africa remains the only region yet to experience a Green Revolution. Most of this will come from private investment.



Venture capital firm AgFunder attested that African farming stands out for drawing in a low volume of venture capital investment.



At the moment, the continent is experiencing the fastest rate of population growth in the world.



Consequently, food demand is growing rapidly as well.



However, as the continent with the youngest population in the world, the 2022 Africa AgriFoodTech Investment Report says it attracted less than 1% of all venture capital spending onagriculture—just $482 million compared to the nearly $52 billion raised globally.



The figure for the entire continent is about the same as the public sector agricultural research budget of Nigeria or South Africa. Far too many potential food and agriculture investors still overlook opportunities in Africa.



“There are more and more funding opportunities coming up,” says Bosire, who bootstrapped his business. “But what I really think we need to focus on at the moment is look into Africa as a place of opportunity for investment.



Because agritech in other developed markets is really receiving a lot of funding but it&#8217;s not the case in Africa. So, I believe that with more sensitization of global investors to see Africa as an opportunity to also invest in agritech is really going to help us.”



Investment volumes were negligible just a decade ago, according to reports, but thankfully have grown as investments more than doubled from 2020 to 2021.



They seem set to nearly double again.



“Investing in 2022 got off to a roaring start, with startups raising roughly $400 million in the first half of the year—more than 80% of what was raised in all of 2021,” the AgriFoodTech Investment Report reads.



While 40% of the agricultural workforce (some 440 million workers) is in waged employment; the other 60% are self-employed as farmers, mainly as small scale farmers (Fyfe 2002). 



But why is the uptake slow?



“You have heard the jokes such as if you&#8217;re going to get broke very fast, you either start a farm or buy an airline,” Mpofu laughs. “And everything&#8217;s going to go south. But that&#8217;s exactly why you need more predictive tools in the business, which is why you would need agtech so that you&#8217;re bankable in the industry.”



But there are also reports that interest in funding African farming by venture capital groups spiked last year and is on track to continue expanding aggressively this year.



“I almost feel like this agtech space was made for agriculture,” Dr Agnes Kalibata says. “I was looking at how much money has been invested in this space. About two to three years ago, this was about a $17 billion industry, you know, and growing very fast. Now, actually it is projected that by 2025 to be a trillion dollar industry… There is no reason why most of it should not becoming to Africa.”

Shot of an unrecognisable woman using a digital tablet while working on a farm

Money Does Not Grow On Trees: African Farming Draws Low Volume Of Venture Capital Investments

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AFRICA’S GREEN ECONOMY: Africa’s Agripreneurs Leading Smart Sustainable Farming

Why data could be the deciding factor in Africa’s agricultural transformation.

The world has a palm oil problem.
It’s a global, billion-dollar industry and its end result is irreversible environmental damage, ranging from deforestation and fires, to the loss of species such as tigers, pygmy elephants and orangutans.
Palm oil is used in 50% of the products we buy (think bread, shampoo, soaps and even chocolate) due to the fact that it is the highest-yielding vegetable oil crop.
Yet, in a country like Uganda, where 80% of the population is involved in agriculture as a way of life, many Ugandans farm oil palm on small plots, barely making a living.
“The use of data for purposes of precision agricultural systems is being used around the world to optimize farms, from anticipating natural disasters such as droughts and flooding, to predicting the best time to harvest crops, to anticipating outbreaks of pests and disease before they impact the produce,” says AgriSA’s Janse Rabie. “In an era of ever-increasing challenges with respect to ensuring food security, both locally and elsewhere in Africa, the application of data and smart farming practices is becoming ever more important.”
SAP Rural Sourcing Management is a cloud-based system used by Barry Callebaut, among the world’s largest sustainable cocoa producers. But what does fair trade chocolate have to do with Uganda’s problematic, smallholder farm life? And how can data change the palm oil trade so the way in which we farm this much-used resource becomes more ethically-focussed and transparent?
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/05/15/2020-to-2030-will-be-the-decade-of-agri-tech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: ‘2020 to 2030 Will Be The Decade Of Agri-Tech’</a>
Back in 2009, SAP built a prototype for small-scale farmers across Africa using funding from the German government.
“We spent a long time doing ethnographic research, getting right on the ground with small-scale farmers in West Africa to understand how they live and what challenges are. We wanted to find out what would be useful to them and the cooperatives to which many of us didn&#8217;t belong,” explains Simon Carpenter, SAP Africa’s Chief Technology Advisor.
<div id="attachment_37559" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37559" class="size-medium wp-image-37559" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Simon-Carpenter-300x201.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="201" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Simon-Carpenter-300x201.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Simon-Carpenter-600x401.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Simon-Carpenter.jpg 640w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Simon Carpenter. Photo provided.</div>
The system was bought by Callebaut so they could provide it to their small-scale (but globally situated) growers as well as the co-ops they deal with – be it cocoa, vanilla or even palm oil micro farmers – a way to collaborate in real-time.
This is where the Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust (KOPGT) comes in. The farming collective acts as a hub, connecting smallholder farmers to government services and local agricultural companies. And now, the GIZ – a German development agency that provides services in the field of international development cooperation – is working closely with the Ugandan government to roll out this solution to over 2,000 farmers.
“If we can start to gather data from small-scale farmers on how they farm and where they’re farming, we can do a couple of things: firstly, we can start to build a history and an identity for that small-scale farmer, which makes it easier for either the government or the private sector to extend credit to them so they can start to scale their farms. It also informs government in terms of who is growing what and where which starts to inform future government policy. Do they need agronomists? Are they growing the right crops for their kind of economy? Once you&#8217;ve started to generate this data, you can do some amazing things with it,” adds Carpenter.
<h3>Farming of the future</h3>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-37561 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/6-769x1024.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="985" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/6-769x1024.jpg 769w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/6-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/6-600x799.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/6-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/6-768x1023.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/6.jpg 1537w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />
In many instances, lack of information has a direct impact on African smallholder farmers&#8217; outputs and, by effect, livelihoods. According to new research, only 5% of cultivated land in Africa makes use of irrigation compared to 38% in Asia.
Farmers today are experimenting with new processes and production methods. From big data to biotechnology, sensors, drones, autonomous systems and more, the technologies likely to make the most difference in agri-tech are tools and equipment that can capture and interpret data.
Benji Meltzer is the co-founder of Aerobotics, a South African agri-tech startup that has developed an early warning smart scouting platform that could help farmers identify potential pest and disease issues in tree crops. With over 500 farmers already signed up on the platform across 11 countries, they’ve built an end-to-end farm monitoring solution.
<div id="attachment_37558" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37558" class="size-medium wp-image-37558" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer-80x80.jpg 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Benji-Meltzer.jpg 1459w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Benji Meltzer. Photo provided.</div>
“As farming conditions become more difficult, farmers have more reason to optimize and farm more precisely. Our data can be used to make more efficient use of resources, including water and chemicals, by applying corrective action in a data-driven manner (rather than blanket application across the farm) and as a result focusing on treatment. Farmers don&#8217;t have tools to effectively manage their resources and farms and are wasting both time and money through inefficiencies. The lack of information, insights and data-driven decisions on the ground can lead to losses and reduced yields,” explains Meltzer.
“We are able to identify individual trees and help growers pinpoint those that are under stress. This means farmers can focus their attention on the areas that matter, and as a result farm by exception and driven by data, rather than by walking blindly through the field,” he says. “We are able to monitor pest and diseases close to real time through our drone imagery (which is processed within a few days) and in-field scouting tools which enables farmers to monitor by exception.”
Aerobotics helps farmers take advantage of a portion of this data by allowing them to drive decisions from using proprietary machine-learning algorithms. What’s interesting is all of their products are currently hosted in the cloud, where they use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to scale their applications.
“We specifically use AWS for cloud storage (to store raw and processed imagery), cloud compute (to process huge amounts of data and extract insights), database storage and to serve our applications. Working with AWS to help farmers grow healthier crops is a perfect example of the way in which technology transforms traditional industries, leading to better livelihood conditions. Africa can be a harsh environment for farming. Crops are constantly under threat from problems such as disease, pests, and drought. Using the AWS cloud, we are bringing compute, data analytics, and other advanced technologies to help farmers grow healthier crops, despite the harsh conditions.”
Like others, Meltzer believes that cloud has the potential to solve many problems in almost any industry and application. Agriculture is no different, whether it’s irrigation systems, fertilization, or disease and pest control, compute and data analysis capabilities the cloud offers transform these processes to make farming of the future easier.
The use of drone technology, along with data harvesting, has been incredibly effective for South African macadamia growers. At Sutton Crest citrus farm in Mpumalanga in South Africa, for example, they managed to increase nut production with more detailed soil analysis, GPS data and probes.
Macadamia nut trees require different nutrients from one phenological stage to another, so by understanding what to add to fertilizer and when, the farmers can prevent early nut drop – something which lowers overall yield – and save water usage at the same time.
<h3>‘Crowd-farming’ cows?</h3>
From using geo-spatial analysis to farm sugarcane in Swaziland to Fresh Direct, a Nigerian startup which repurposes old shipping containers to grow crops in the densely-populated Abuja capital; to Livestock Wealth’s Ntuthuko Shezi who is “crowd-farming” cows in South Africa as an entry point to the financial services industry, the time is now for African agri-tech.
And it’s far more than self-driving ploughs or robotic tools – the value lies in big data and its applications. MySmartFarm is another locally-developed all-in-one farming tool hosted in the cloud. It analyzes farm data to give real-time insights.
According to a status report from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Africa’s food system requires an agricultural transformation focused on more than just production. It needs to encompass the entire food system. It could explain why, nearly eight years ago, John Deere, the agricultural equipment manufacturer, fitted their tractors with global-positioning-system (GPS) sensors. It seemed revolutionary at the time, but this addition made it possible to stop farmers missing out patches as they shuttled up and down fields or covering the same ground twice – a common problem with an easy solve involving data.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has created standards for ethical and sustainable palm oil production which certifies qualified growers and processors. Currently, around 20% of the palm oil across the globe is certified by RSPO but with smarter farming methods, this number will surely increase.
The farm, like the future, is not what it used to be.
&#8211; Tiana Cline

Farmer-flying-a-Phantom-4-Pro-using-the-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app

Big Data And Smart Farmers For Africa’s Agricultural Transformation

Picture this: remote rural Africa, where communities assiduously farm vast stretches of arable land not knowing anything about digital technology or drones that can transform their lives.
Now picture this: forward-thinking innovators and entrepreneurs who swap the city for the village and lend these communities the tech and savvy to change farming – and their fortunes – forever.
Agriculture, the mainstay of Africa’s informal economies, needs a facelift, and some new faces to talk tech to power. Agri-tech is the buzzword, and we profile three innovators spearheading change in their communities. They grew up on these farms, and knowing their earth best, have created the technology they need, in turn revolutionizing agriculture, from the little corners of Africa.
<h4>‘Clarity From Above’ 
James Paterson, South Africa</h4>
<div id="attachment_36233" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36233" class="size-medium wp-image-36233" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/James-Paterson-CEO.jpg 1181w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />James Paterson. Photo supplied.</div>
An unidentified flying object hovers over a 150-hectare orange farm in a small town called Clanwilliam in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
It’s the first time James Paterson is testing his homemade drone. The object flies over the mountainous terrain offering a bird’s eye view, then singles out a tree with stunted growth. The object detects that the tree is not receiving enough water.
The object looks like a prop out of the Transformers movie series. It has eyes too – a camera lens – to monitor what’s happening on the ground. Paterson, 29, controls this propeller-enhanced technology using a controller. He is the co-founder and CEO of Aerobotics, a company that interprets satellite and aerial drone analytics to enable farmers.
He calls it “clarity from above”.
The drone space in Africa has significantly developed over the years, and the view from below has certainly changed too. In Rwanda, drones are a common sight, famously used to deliver blood and medical supplies to remote areas, and here in this small South African farm, it’s being used to improve the way we grow food.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2018/05/02/drones-by-africa-for-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Drones By Africa, For Africa</a>
Aerobotics’ core mandate is to provide data on tree crops, enabling farmers with information on disease, pests and water usage. They are able to tell the farmers if a tree lacks nutrition and what it needs.
“Find one small thing that is going to improve the farmers’ life and then focus on that,” says Paterson.
“Instead of just giving the farmer a picture or a map, we give him exactly what’s going on with the tree and we can track that over time.”
He believes this would be useful in areas such as Cape Town with the ongoing water crisis.
He co-founded the company with Benji Meltzer in 2014 after they built drones in Paterson’s garage. Paterson, who grew up on a fruit farm, had always loved aeronautics. Meltzer is also the Chief Technology Officer of Aerobotics.
Now, he is able to merge farming and tech into something he enjoys doing on a daily basis; running an aeronautical company providing farm analytical services.
<blockquote>“Some farmers… like the older way of doing things.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36240" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36240" class="size-medium wp-image-36240" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/farmer-using-Aerobotics-Flight-Planner-app-for-DJI.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Aerobotics interprets satelitte and aerial drone analytics to help farmers.</div>
But running the company hasn’t always been easy. Apart from competing with drone companies providing similar services, their biggest challenge has been trying to convince farmers to use their product.
“Some farmers… like the older way of doing things,” says Paterson.
“But even then, after we have met with them and we show them what that can do, they can really understand this is something that can help them on the farm.”
Currently, they have over 200 clients in countries such as the United States, Russia and South Africa.
Paterson has been one of the few to benefit from drone innovation in agriculture. He says he and the team were the only South African startups amongst 24 companies around the world to be part of Google’s Launchpad Accelerator in San Francisco early this year.
They have also secured an R8 million ($663,000) fund from two venture capital firms who Paterson says saw the benefit of their software for farmers. They are currently undergoing a new round of funding.
Aerobotics’ Chief Financial Officer, Timothy Willis, believes that technology in farming can assist in better risk mitigation and enhancing efficiencies around yields.
“I think those two things together will add to making a more efficient agricultural sector in Africa,” he says.
Five years from now, Paterson predicts drones will become more autonomous.
“In the future, you won’t be concerned about the drone, it will just do all the work for you.”
<h4>Smart Farming 
Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Abia State, Nigeria</h4>
<div id="attachment_36235" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36235" class="size-medium wp-image-36235" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841-682x1024.jpg 682w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NdubuisiEkekwe_IMG_82841.jpg 1181w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Ndubuisi Ekekwe. Photo supplied.</div>
From a farm in the Abia State of Nigeria, Dr Ndubuisi Ekekwe talks to us about a table.
Not just any table, but a small square-shaped table resting on one leg, which actually is “an electronic farm diary” that records and collects crucial information for farmers.
Ekekwe calls it Zenvus, which he created in 2011. It collects data on the soil’s pH, moisture and temperature, and records the sun’s intensity and humidity in the air. An inbuilt solar panel charges it.
The device is his contribution to smart farming. It wirelessly transmits the recorded data to a cloud server from which farmers access it on a mobile app and get real-time data.
“2020 to 2030 will be the decade of agri-tech,” Ekekwe tells FORBES AFRICA.
Zenvus services corporates, and have supplied to 500,000 farming entities. He says it’s currently in a partnership with the government of Cross River State in Nigeria, as well as Abia State.
Ekekwe says he has been approached by a number of international companies wanting to cash in on Zenvus. However, he has been reluctant to sell it.
“Someone wanted to buy Zenvus for $5 million five years ago. I wouldn’t even sell it for $15 million, just to tell you the kind of value it has,” he says.
For Ekekwe, it’s more important to service farmers. To date, he prides himself in having the largest farmers’ cooperative in Africa.
<blockquote>“I wouldn’t even sell it for $15 million.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36239" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36239" class="size-medium wp-image-36239" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Field-Photos-of-Both-Devices.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Zenvus collects crucial data for farmers in Nigeria.</div>
Ekekwe grew up as a farm boy in a village called Ovim in Abia State. Growing up, he received distinctions throughout his high school year and went on to acquire an engineering degree, four master’s degrees, two doctorates in management and microelectronics, as also a medical robotics degree from the United States.
He chose to move back and stay on in his village.
Ovim is known for the Ajonkwu festival when the Igbo community gather to celebrate the harvesting season.
According to Ekekwe, farmers rely on the moon to obtain a greater yield. As a result, tech for farming isn’t something a lot of people in his community are open to.
“Farmers are not literate and that is why we are not selling tech to them, we are selling the service,” he says.
According to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), 65% of Africa’s labor force is engaged in agriculture. Despite this, agricultural productivity on the African continent still lags behind significantly compared to other continents. AGRA suggests that farming only accounts for 32% of the continent’s GDP. Africa therefore does not reap the benefits of agriculture.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/06/05/agriculture-behind-africas-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Agriculture Behind Africa’s Health</a>
Ekekwe says the future of Africa is farming. He believes the convergence of tech and agriculture will result in more people wanting a piece of the pie of agri-tech startups and open up more opportunities for Africans across the continent.
<h4>‘Uber For Farmers’ 
Brian Bosire, Kisii, Kenya</h4>
<div id="attachment_36237" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36237" class="wp-image-36237 size-medium" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-300x181.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="181" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-300x181.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-600x361.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-768x462.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101-1024x617.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RS16164_DSC_17101.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Brian Bosire. Photo supplied.</div>
On a farm in southwestern Kenya, in the small town of Kisii, a field agent reads data off a yellow square-shaped monitor, which has wires running into a smaller device connecting to the soil. It takes him about five minutes to read data regarding the soil’s PH, water levels, and disease and pests found on it. In almost two minutes, the data is sent to the farmer.
The field worker’s job is done and he looks at his phone to find his next requested farm match.
The device that has helped him is named UjuziKilimo, which is Swahili for ‘knowledge farming’. Its founder, 24-year-old Brian Bosire, calls it “an Uber service for farmers”, and this on a farm that even Uber might find difficult to access.
The field worker travels to the nearest farmer who has requested his services. This kind of smart farming service costs the Kenyan farmer about $20.
Bosire had always wanted to become a key contributor to Kenya’s agricultural industry. He grew up in Kisii, a town known for its highlands and wet weather – favorable climate for farming. Frustrated by the lethargic technological growth in the agricultural space in his town, he sought to create something innovative that would improve the yields for the farmers of Kisii.
“We aren’t selling tech, we are selling the solutions,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
Bosire says what he tries to do is become as close to the farmer as possible. As a result, he and his team target small-scale farmers and read data on vegetable crops, maize being one of them. The UjuziKilimo can read data from about five to 10 acres of land. Farmers can request data on their farms by simply sending an SMS so even farmers with the most basic cellular devices can benefit.
<blockquote>“We aren’t selling tech, we are selling the solutions.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_36238" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36238" class="size-medium wp-image-36238" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Ujuzi-Kit.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />UjuziKilimo helps improve yields.</div>
When Bosire moved to the big city of Nairobi to study, he took advantage of every opportunity to pursue his dreams as an entrepreneur. To date, he has founded three companies, all operating in the tech innovation space, UjuziKilimo one of them. 
It’s old hat that Kenya, the country which pioneered M-Pesa as one of Africa’s leading startups, is home to a lot more players in the tech space. But Bosire says his business is different.
Earlier this year, his other innovation company, HydroIQ, won the Startup of the Year Africa 2018 award. Slightly linked to agri-tech, it’s a virtual water network operator which connects water utility companies and water consumers through an online platform. It allows for mobile money payments, data analytics, leakage detections and water use and consumption through sensors that relay information.
All this leads one to believe that the future face of farming in Africa is young.
Bosire hopes UjuziKilimo can grow to reach from 10,000 farmers to over 50,000.
“We want to become the largest data center of agriculture analytics in Africa,” he says. Future plans include launching UjuziKilimo in the United Kingdom under the name ‘Soil Pal’.
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Tag: Agritech

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