Agritech Investment Climate in the Post-Covid Africa
Since 2015, there has
been an increase in the number of agritech start-ups in Africa that provide digital solutions to the myriads of challenges facing farmers in the continent. Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria have been described as the
major contributing countries to the growth of digital farming in Africa, the
trio accounting for 60 percent of the active agritech start-ups in the
continent. In 2020, the venture capital equity investment in
agritech start-ups of Africa hit 179 million USD while the total venture capital investment raised by start-ups in different
sectors of the economy was put at 1.43 billion USD -- agritech start-ups VC investment only came
second to fintech’s VC investments of 359 million USD. Despite the heat of the covid-19
pandemic, the year 2020 was arguably a glorious year for most agritech
companies in Africa as there was exponential growth in investment into the
sector.
Environmental Implication of Cassava Production
Cassava is the main crop grown in Africa on a wet weight basis. Nigeria is the world’s largest cassava-producing country, turning out around 50 million tonnes per annum. Cassava peels makeup 20% of the whole root, but are discarded during processing. The peels amount to nearly 40 million tons per year in Africa alone. Thus, the crop is usually being referred to as an environmental polluter with the mountains of waste around processing centers.
To create a business opportunity out of this undesirable byproduct, the
Big Data Ecosystem in Agriculture
Interrogating Covid-19, High Demand and Low Production as Dominant Factors for Food Price Change
The emergence of COVID-19, rapid increase in demand for staple foods and other
essential commodities together with the challenges of low production, especially
of the highly sought after food materials are said to be the significant
factors among the people and professionals in the agriculture industry
responsible for the change in prices. Of these factors, we examined the link
between the cases of the virus recorded in the country as of May 17, 2021, and
the prices of over 43 food items being measured by the National Bureau of
Statistics monthly.
THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON OUR FOOD SYSTEM: HOW FARMKONNECT IS CHANGING THE NARRATIVE IN NIGERIA
Anthropogenic climate change is already a reality in Africa,
as it is elsewhere in the world. Africa is among the most vulnerable continents
to climate change. The vulnerability of Africa to climate change is driven by a
range of factors including a weak adaptive capacity, high dependence on
ecosystem goods for livelihoods, and less developed agricultural production
systems. Economic sectors such as agriculture, fishery, and
forestry are more predisposed to the adverse effect of climate change.
Farmers, especially smallholder farmers in Africa have been largely affected
by climate change.