Agri-tech and Africa with Drones
Agricultural technology, also known as Agri-tech, is a stand-alone industry that uses technology to improve the agricultural food supply chain, while also influencing energy, water, the environment, and sustainability. Although the use of Agri-tech is increasing world-wide, one specific technological item is notably being used around Africa, Drones.
A growing number of smallholder farmers in Africa are using technology to access information, services, and goods in order to raise productivity, increase crop yields, and boost revenue. According to data that was commissioned by Microsoft and put together by Africa Practice, Africa's agriculture sector is expected to increase exponentially over the next 10 years. The continent is positioned to become the worldwide hub for Agri-tech solutions and has experienced tremendous growth in e-agriculture solutions, with a predicted value of USD 1 trillion by 2030.
Currently, Africa is heavily reliant on its agricultural sector. As per World Bank estimates, agriculture accounts for 65% of all employment and 32% of the continent's GDP. Approximately 70% of the continent’s population directly depends on agribusiness, and a vast majority of farmers work on small scale farms that produce nearly 90% of all agricultural output. According to certain data, African Agri-tech startups increased in 2021 by 58.5% with funding worth USD 95 million.
Aerobotic is one of many African Agri-tech companies. It is located in Cape Town, South Africa, and specialises in data analytics using imagery from drones and machine learning algorithms to optimize crop performance for farmers globally. Drone imagery can use thermal and multispectral imagery to deliver data at a level unseen to the naked eye, which makes high-resolution drones the recommended data source for the purposes of precision farming for speciality crops.
Other benefits of using drones in farming include fighting crop diseases, maximising the yield of farms, being used for precise farming practices, such as using fertiliser, planting seeds, or spraying crops with chemicals, and for monitoring the overall health of crops via near-infrared sensors, hi-resolution imagery, and thermal cameras.
However, smallholder farms in certain parts of Africa have been slow in adopting Agri-tech due to uneven uptake of technologies associated with high costs, lack of funding for smallholder farmers, and the inactive involvement of the private sector. The World Resource Institute predicts that the global population will reach close to 10 billion by 2050, and to feed that amount of people, food production will need to grow by almost 60%. Thus, it will be essential for Australian businesses to tap into the Agri-tech market in Africa for exporting opportunities and diversifying their trade in the continent as the world population continues to grow.