Page 98 - Forbes - Africa (March 2020)
P. 98
FORBES AFRICA
OPINION • TECHNOLOGY
How To Be A Major
Player In Global
Food Markets
has had a devastating impact on the agriculture points from the farms’ existing crops. If you
BY TSHILIDZI MARWALA
sector, which is particularly concerning when were to ask me to spell out some breakthrough
The writer is a professor you consider that most African economies still technologies, many of them would be
and Vice-Chancellor
of the University of heavily depend on it. A study by McKinsey & inextricably linked with the agricultural sector.
Johannesburg. He Company found that more than 60% of the For instance, it is estimated that humans
deputizes President population of sub-Saharan Africa is smallholder would need to plant over 1.2 trillion trees to
Cyril Ramaphosa on the
South African Presidential farmers, and about 23% of sub-Saharan Africa’s combat climate change. Here, we could use AI
Commission on the Fourth gross domestic product (GDP) comes from to automate this process.
Industrial Revolution
agriculture. Yet, increases in temperatures, Airlitix is a South African AI software that
changes in precipitation patterns and extreme is currently being used in drones to automate
weather events not only disrupt entire greenhouse management processes. We could
industries but reduce food availability and take this a step further. Airlitix can collect
AST YEAR, BILL impacts food quality. This, of course, is coupled temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide data
Gates named his with the fastest-rising population, which places as well as analyse soil and crop health.
10 breakthrough more strain on resources. Elsewhere, similar technology has been
Ltechnologies for the We have already observed in the last few adopted. The Third Eye project in Kenya
year. Among the technological years how devastating a drought can be. South uses near-infrared cameras mounted on
developments he outlined were Africa has become a significant food importer, drones to survey and diagnose the plants for
robot dexterity, new-wave while Kenya and Zimbabwe are on the verge pests and diseases, water stress and nutrient
nuclear power, customized of starvation. This has seen the regional and deficiencies. This requires a combination of
cancer vaccines and the national economic growth take a severe knock. historical data and the use of AI. Last year,
cow-free burger. It was the Yet, as the United Nations put it, “the continent IBM developed an AI-powered app to test the
first time that the list, usually has enormous potential, not only to feed itself quality of their soil and water on location, in
compiled by MIT Technology and eliminate hunger and food insecurity but real-time. The AgroPad is a technology that
Review, was created by a also be a major player in global food markets.” can rapidly perform chemical analysis of water
guest editor. It is no wonder So how do we go about this? I would argue and soil samples. In California, Ceres Imaging
that Gates rightly predicted that tapping into the technologies of the has mapped fields using images of farms,
that home computers and fourth industrial revolution (4IR) does not just which are analysed using AI to ascertain
the internet would infiltrate serve as a way of revitalizing the agricultural whether crops are getting enough water. This
much of our lives. Yet, when sector but also realizing its potential. As the technology helps farmers decide when to
I went through this list, it American financier Bernard Baruch once put it: plant, water, spray and harvest their crops.
was not necessarily universal. “Agriculture is the greatest and fundamentally This conversation crops up as we scrutinize
Many of these breakthrough the most important of our industries. The cities what it means to have a green economy.
technologies made sense are but the branches of the tree of national life, The 4IR does not merely provide tools for
through Western lenses. We the roots of which go deep into the land. We all efficiency, but it presents a unique opportunity
have to ask, which of these flourish or decline with the farmer.” to interrogate how we can transform
breakthrough technologies I have just bought a farm and have been the industry as our natural environment
will have the most significant looking at ways in which artificial intelligence deteriorates.
impact on the African (AI) can make farming more efficient. Farmers To a large extent, we underestimate the
continent? can tap into AI to combat disease and pests, importance of the agricultural sector. Yet,
Perhaps the most pressing which have been made worse by climate change without it, we would not have food security,
issue for Africa now is and pesticide use. Drones and other robots we would see our economies crumble and
agriculture. Climate change equipped with computer vision can collect data there would be untold job losses.
94 | FORBES AFRICA MARCH 2020 FORBESAFRICA.COM
