Embrace modern technology to solve food insecurity in Africa

Lazarus Sauti

According to Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion, 34 percent higher than today’s population, by 2050.

This means more food will be needed to feed this ballooning population.

As the world is struggling to feed its citizens, more needs to be done.

African countries, since they are most affected, need to move away from traditional ways of farming and embrace modern technologies to solve food insecurity.

This is because modern technologies such as geographical information systems, a technological tool for comprehending geography and making intelligent decisions, can help African countries address the data deficit and enable them to accurately identify the scale and type of intervention that will be most appropriate and ensure the most efficient use of humanitarian resources.

According to Geographical Information System software technology firm Esri, the ability of GIS to analyse and visualise agricultural environments and workflows has proven to be very beneficial to those involved in the farming industry.

“Geographical information system is crucial in agriculture as it can be used to understand everything from where to better apply fertilizers to mapping various conditions of the soil.

“The information is processed immediately and indicates to farmers whether they need to adjust their strategy to improve production, which directly impacts revenue, food and products for the world’s population,” said Devon Cancilla, Ph.D., dean, business and technology at American Sentinel University.

Using the power of modern technologies can also help countries in the African continent to combine and analyse geo-referenced household survey data with variety of spatial data from infrastructural networks and market locations to vegetation cover patterns and crop water supply to investigate the main drivers of food insecurity and vulnerability.

World Food Programme (WFP) thus states, “Analysis of temporal series of satellite data allows the identification and mapping of trends and variability in drivers of food insecurity.”

Embracing modern technologies will therefore see African countries easily collect, analyse, disseminate and use food security data and information.

Balancing the inputs and outputs on a farm is fundamental to its success and profitability.

Therefore, the ability of GIS to analyse and visualise agricultural environments and workflows has proven to be very beneficial to those involved in the farming industry.

From mobile GIS in the field to the scientific analysis of production data at the farm manager's office, GIS is playing an increasing role in agriculture production throughout the world by helping farmers increase production, reduce costs, and manage their land more efficiently.

Additionally, as in any planning effort, information is critical.

Annalie Fourie, GIS Specialist, believes: “Reliable crop information is vital to the functioning of grain markets. It is used to inform decisions on planting, marketing, and policy.

“More accurate and reliable crop estimates help reduce uncertainty in the grain industry.”

Accordingly, a Geographic Information System (GIS) applied to an agricultural landscape can effectively capture, store, analyse and display information that is geographically based.

Of its many benefits, GIS can improve our understanding of farming areas, help promote agricultural development and assist in identifying and handling issues important to strengthening farming.

To tap from the benefits of GIS, Ministries of Agriculture in African countries should work with other support organisations in developing a series of tools such as an Access database and coding system for recording information.

More so, African governments should invest more in modern technologies to help alleviate food challenges in their respective countries.