For example, for governments, lower-cost and higher-resolution remote-sensing technologies can help policymakers access better data to understand their climate risk. AI-enabled data systems can help them make sense of these data to optimise policy choices. Real-time dashboards available across government departments can help address capacity constraints, while enabling more joined-up policymaking. And by enabling farmers to adopt technologies that can boost resilience as well as reducing emissions from agriculture – such as microbial fertilisers – governments are also more likely to be able to achieve their emissions objectives.
For farmers, adopting these technologies not only presents an opportunity to bolster resilience to climate impacts, but also to boost productivity and reduce costs. For example, by adopting precision-agriculture technologies, farmers can use fertilisers and pesticides in a more targeted manner, which reduces ongoing costs. And by adopting climate-resilient seeds, farmers can increase their productivity and, therefore, their income.
Crucially, using these technologies rather than relying solely on 20th-century tools will allow countries in Africa to foster an agriculture sector that is resilient, regenerative and more diverse.
The capabilities of these technologies are expanding rapidly with advances in AI. For example, machine learning can significantly improve climate models by improving their accuracy and resolution, which in turn can enable governments to make better-targeted policy decisions. Advances in AI and machine learning could also revolutionise how the world identifies and breeds resilient crop varieties, enabling faster and more accurate predictions of how plants might perform under different environmental conditions.
It is important to note that agriculture is highly context-specific and, therefore, different solutions will be appropriate in different countries’ contexts. In countries with more financial constraints, it may make sense to begin by implementing lower-cost solutions, like agroecological farming methods, while also building the capacity to enable farmers to implement more advanced solutions in the future.
Agricultural systems are complex, and harnessing the technology toolkit requires action from a range of stakeholders – including farmers and food producers, other private-sector actors, and government.
The development of new technologies is, and will continue to be, largely driven by the private sector, while their uptake will depend on the actions of farmers. Yet progress isn’t happening quickly enough.
The role of governments is to set the enabling conditions to incentivise and facilitate the appropriate deployment and creation of tools and technologies.
In practice, this means measuring and managing their country’s risk, supporting the deployment and uptake of current solutions by farmers – through information dissemination and de-risking finance – and promoting the development of new solutions through innovation support. It does not necessarily mean deciding exactly which technologies should be deployed, and where.
A Guest Editorial