It is estimated that through technological innovation, The Internet of things (IoT) has the potential to increase agricultural productivity in Africa by 70 percent, exactly the figure by which the demand for food is set to increase based on population growth. This is according to a Deloitte US report on the impact of IoT on agriculture.
The current government already made the call at diversification and making agriculture more than a development programme, but sadly just a handful of Nigerian farmers have grasped the use of data and analytics on farm-level parameters such as soil, weather, water, crop condition and pesticide use.
A progression in the Nigerian agricultural sector is needed now more than ever. According to the Food and Agricultural organization, food production needs to increase by at least 70 percent to meet an equilibrium point with the growing food demand of the Global population projected to hit 9 billion people by 2050.
A survey by The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) already generated unprecedented datasets that reveal the enormous variability encountered in Nigerian cropping systems. Today, it’s more critical than ever to maximize yields from every acre of land dedicated to food production.
“The internet of things has the potential to boost productivity in the Nigerian agricultural sector, The main barriers preventing a greater uptake of e-agriculture include issues around connectivity, bandwidth and electricity supply, as well as the high cost of equipment and services and a general fear by farmers to take up new technology” says Babatunde Adewumi, the chairman of the Nigerian institution of agricultural engineers in a phone interview with business day.
He further suggested that to build the best from the Internet of things in Nigeria, then we should move on from traditional cooperative systems, to cluster systems as embracing precision farming by individual farmers is both highly capital-intensive and large scale.
Agriculture stands to make up a larger proportion of Nigeria’s GDP, boosting agricultural growth and sustainability is a priority – and ICTs have the potential to support agricultural development in Nigeria by functioning as innovative solutions to agricultural challenges
While farmers and their machinery are still important for the agricultural industry, technology is starting to play a more significant role in elevating communities. This goes beyond basic computer training to using IoT to improve sustainability, effectiveness and profitability.
The world economic forum in 2015 identified the IoT as one of the twenty one ‘tipping points’ when a specific technological innovation enters the mainstream society, WEF estimates that this point will be reached by 2022.
Giving rising agricultural demand and resource scarcity challenges, the internet of things will ensure that this tipping point is reached sooner rather than later.
Farmers stand to benefit from precise advice about the seeds to plant, time to harvest, and expected yield, by collecting data generated from GPS and sensors on the field and farming equipment, and using big data analytics, farmers will be able to improve crop yields and water utilization.
MARTINS NOEL
