Digitalization in Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges

Geneva – The FAO Liaison Office in Geneva organized the Geneva Agricultural Trade Talk to discuss digitalization in agriculture, its challenges, and opportunities. This dialogue aimed to provide an overview of the topic, present an application by the winners from the FAO-Geneva Trade Platform Hackathon, discuss the role of youth in sustainable agriculture, understand the digital agricultural landscape in Africa, and learn from private sector experience in digitalizing agricultural markets using Artificial Intelligence.

Thembani Malapela, FAO Knowledge and Information Management Officer, discussed the need to invest in digital technologies to transform agrifood systems efficiently, inclusively, and sustainably. He highlighted examples of digital technologies that have improved food security and outlined FAO's flagship initiatives, including Hand-in-Hand and Digital Villages. Malapela warned that digitalization must be implemented carefully to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities, such as the gender divide, rural divide, and rich-poor divide.

Maximilian Wuebbelsmann and Varun Bhagat, the winners of the FAO-Geneva Trade Platform Hackathon, presented the winning app, called "The Green Crop App," which supports sustainable fertilizer use by farmers through calculators and policy reform support.

Mo Saffaf, the Head of Sales & Data Success of Agflow SA, discussed the company's activities, which include collecting raw data from vetted sources and redistributing it across the entire agriculture value chain. He highlighted the importance of knowledge and information sharing and Agflow's long-term vision of ensuring that agricultural players have access to proper information. Agflow is also developing an AI-powered application to provide farmers with reliable information.

Ken Lohento, FAO Digital Agriculture Specialist, gave an overview of the digital agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and identified key areas of focus for sustainable agriculture and relevant frameworks for digitalization, including Digital Climate-Smart Agriculture Services (DCAS) and climate-smart advisory services provided by Tolbi for the Digital Villages Initiative (DVI) in Senegal. Lohento identified five key areas of actions and support, including innovation and entrepreneurship, partnerships and inclusion, use case, capacity building, and enabling environments.

Ceasar Vulley, FAO Youth Employment Specialist, discussed the sustainable agriculture agenda, the role of youth in contributing to it, and the role of technology in boosting youth contributions.

The Q&A session focused on cases in Africa where telecommunication firms support the provision of Digital Climate-Smart Agriculture Services, the creation of dignified jobs for youth using digital, and the scope of the "Green Crop App" to include pesticides and biopesticides.

FAO Geneva Trade Talk series

The FAO Liaison Office in Geneva organizes technical dialogues under the FAO in Geneva Trade Talks series (FAO in Geneva Agriculture Trade Talks and FAO in Geneva Fisheries Trade Talks) in collaboration with the Markets and Trade Division (EST) and Fisheries and Aquaculture Division (NFI). These events aim to inform trade stakeholders, in Geneva and beyond, on timely issues in relation to agriculture and trade, showcase the analytic work of FAO and provide factual input to Members on issues that could be relevant to ongoing discussions.