FAO Director-General shares vision and experience on digitalization of agriculture during his visit to Senegal

April 17^th, 2022- Dakar. Digital agriculture is the way of the future. But it is already changing the livelihoods of Senegalese farmers through FAO’s visionary 1000 Digital Villages Initiative.

Following his participation in the 32nd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa (ARC32) in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the FAO Director-General QU Dongyu arrived in Senegal for an official visit on April 16-18, 2022. In addition to his meeting with the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, who is also the current Chairperson of the African Union, the FAO DG met with technical and development partners as well as producers and key actors involved in the digitalization of agriculture in Senegal.

The Director-General shared his experience on the digitalization of agriculture, mainly focusing on the 1000 Digital Villages Initiative, an FAO drive focusing on increasing the use of digital tools in farming communities. The meeting was attended by the UN Resident Coordinator, organizations based in Senegal such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), farmers’ organizations and the private sector.    

Dr. QU underlined the importance of digitalization: “Digital agriculture can drive the transformation of agri-food systems necessary to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and build a better future for all humankind. Digitalization is the path to the new way of life and the new agriculture economy: data-driven and data-intensive, which can improve efficiency and reduce negative environmental impacts,” he said.

The Director-General noted the key achievements of the Digital Villages Initiative in Senegal which is bringing agricultural services closer to farmers, providing them with real-time climate information and forecasts, best agricultural practices, information on livestock management, market prices, and health and nutrition advice directly on their cell phones.

To date, 120,000 Senegalese farmers are receiving these agricultural advisory services in their local language.

The Director-General directly interacted with farmers and all key partners involved in the implementation of the 1000 Digital Villages Initiative in Senegal.

"I now enjoy my time with less pressure from my housework,” Fatoumata Camara, one of the participants, said in a video screened for the Director-General. “Before, I used to leave the children at home in the morning, not sure if they would eat or drink during the day and go to work at the farm. Now I have time to take care of the children in the morning, to take a shower. I am thinking of starting breeding animals, having a fridge with the rural electrification to sell freshwater, all things I could not consider doing before," she said.

Seeing the positive impacts of the initiative in Senegal, the Director-General encouraged all the stakeholders involved in the implementation of the 1000 Digital Villages Initiative to strengthen collaboration to scale up the initiative.