Question 1
Question 1. What are the potential entry points for government to address challenges and foster the development of digital agriculture?
Proposed information for the concept note - The challenges that face our global food and agricultural system are enormous and some entry points that government have to address are:
- Inadequate access to information: often, there is insufficient access to information and, in particular, to technical and not-technical knowledge of the agri-tech industry.
- Inadequate digital literacy and new skills development: labour is not yet competitive in a world where digital technologies are able to replace human labour.
- Inadequate access to financial resources: especially in poor and rural areas, these dynamics are worsened by the higher difficulty in accessing financing to obtain the initial investments needed to adopt digital solutions.
- Inadequate infrastructures: the impossibility of relying on proper infrastructures undermines the diffusion and the benefits of any sort of innovation or technological development.
- Inadequate support by the innovation system: digitalization in agriculture is also obstructed by the absence (or the inadequate awareness) of supporting elements such as policies, standards and regulatory frameworks.
- The increase of socio-economic divides between developing and developed countries.
Digital divide: gap between demographics and regions with access to modern ICTs and those that do not have access;
- Gender divide: gap between genders in access to technologies;
- Geography divide: gap between different geographical areas.
- Lack of investments in non-developed countries: Private sector organizations that are commercializing the latest technologies are often hesitant to begin working in countries that do not ensure sufficient levels of intellectual property (IP) and property protection.
- Low affordability of new solutions: if not well regulated and managed, the development of new technologies and innovation will increasingly exclude the poorest because of their high costs of adoption, especially when it comes to ICT services.
- Trust of information: the increasing number of digital platforms which make information available to actors of the agri-tech value chain (farmers in the first place) present issues of trust of the information source, as well as on the quality of the information provided, due to the underlying interests of the information provider .
- Data ownership: it is not always clear how information gathered from farming and in-field activities by digital tools and technologies are used by technology providers or other actors.
Further guiding questions related to Q1 for your consideration:-
- Do you think the global challenges highlighted are conclusive?
- According to you, what should be added or removed?
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