Advocating for digital agriculture to transform African food systems in Foresight Africa report
May 9, 2025
IITA Director General and CGIAR Regional Director for Africa, Dr Simeon Ehui.IITA Director General and CGIAR Regional Director for Africa, Dr Simeon Ehui, has co-authored a pivotal article in the Brookings Institution’s Foresight Africa 2025–2030 report with Dr Khuloud Odeh, CGIAR Global Director for Digital and Data. The article spotlights the transformative potential of digital agricultural innovations for smallholder farmers across the continent.
In the article “Digital solutions in agriculture drive meaningful livelihood improvements for African smallholder farmers,” Dr Ehui and Dr Odeh stress that digital transformation is no longer optional and is essential for building resilient, productive, and climate-smart agricultural systems in Africa.
Amid rising food insecurity (282 million Africans go hungry daily), the authors argue that climate change, degraded soils, and population pressures necessitate urgent innovation in the agriculture sector. However, agriculture remains one of the least digitized sectors on the continent. Bridging this digital gap could unlock new opportunities for millions of smallholder farmers.
The article outlines how Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies—including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT)—are already creating a significant impact. It highlights successful tools developed and deployed by CGIAR and its partners, such as:
IITA’s Cassava Disease Surveillance platform and the Cassava Seed Tracker in Nigeria
Regional digital hubs for soil health and fertilizer access in West Africa and the Sahel
These innovations have improved yields and livelihoods, enhanced market access, reduced losses, and supported more efficient resource use for millions of farmers.
CGIAR Global Director of Digital and Data, Dr Khuloud Odeh.
Still, the article points out that digital transformation must be inclusive. Challenges such as limited internet connectivity, low digital literacy, data privacy risks, and lack of infrastructure must be addressed.
Emphasizing the need for enabling policy environments, ethical technology use, robust data governance frameworks, and investments in digital literacy, the article highlighted how these can ensure equitable access for millions.
According to the article, the future of African agriculture depends on how effectively digital tools can be harnessed to empower smallholders. With the available solutions, scaling these innovations responsibly, inclusively, and sustainably is essential.
This article’s contribution to Foresight Africa solidifies CGIAR’s role as a global leader in innovation-driven, farmer-centered agricultural transformation.
Contributed by ‘Timilehin Osunde
Olamide Deborah Nwanze is a Senior Research Associate specializing in gender mainstreaming research to inform participatory and inclusive breeding, variety development, and seed systems policies regarding root, tuber, and banana (RTB) crops in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Headquarters, Ibadan, Nigeria. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Ibadan and holds an MSc and B. Agric in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. Olamide is a fellow of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development – Gender Responsive Agricultural Systems Policy (AWARD-GRASP) and the Gender Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT). She seeks to apply her gender-mainstreaming learnings, gender-responsive research, and policy development, and review expertise to facilitate women, youth, children, and vulnerable social group’s access to and adoption of agricultural Innovations that guarantee food, nutrition, income, and livelihood security in Africa. Her current roles include mentoring research fellows, development of guides and training manuals, implementation and adaptation of gender frameworks and tools, value chain actors’ engagement as citizen science partners, policy review and redesign, data management, and analysis. Her current research explores mixed methods and participatory and interdisciplinary approaches to capture and highlight gender dynamics, needs, preferences, and challenges stakeholders face within the agricultural livelihood value chain to prioritize gender-inclusive strategies in breeding programs, policy design, and implementation.
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