Technology enablers
1. Access to telephone (mobile devices) that can be used to access internet and non-internet-based solutions
For the most part, mobile devices can reach and be sold even to the most remote of locations in Africa.
The challenge is the ability of smallholders to afford and use functional mobile devices. In addition, mobile devices come with a cluster of implied expenses like charging and frequent purchase of broadband connectivity. For those who have access, another challenge lies with the quality of devices. That is, the quality of devices that end up in the hands of smallholders are not always of the best. A limitation with the devices that smallholders own is that they are not always compatible with applications that provide solutions targeting them. That is to say, most smallholders can only afford feature phones, yet most digital solutions targeting smallholders are distributed as web and mobile applications.
Additionally, the affordability of 4G-enabled devices remains a key barrier to smartphone adoption. In many countries in SSA, taxes on mobile ownership alone constitute up to 7 per cent of income for the bottom 20 per cent of the earners.1 This effectively means that many of the low-income earners are kept out of the region’s thriving internet economy. This percent value due to sector- specific taxes makes the initial cost of mobile device acquisition and continual use prohibitively high.
2.Penetration of smartphone devices
The GSMA2 estimates that smartphone adoption continues to rise rapidly in the region, reaching 50 per cent of total connections in 2020, as cheaper devices have become available.
Alternative smartphone financing models are also gaining traction. In some cases, these models are facilitated by the partnerships between mobile network operators like Safaricom and multinational conglomerates like Google, allowing low-income consumers to pay for 4G devices in daily installments.
It is further estimated that over the next 5 years, the number of smartphone connections in Sub-Saharan Africa will almost double to reach 678 million by the end of 2025, with an estimated adoption rate of 65 per cent. Penetration of smartphones enhances the consumption of advanced digital agriculture solutions, for example, those that involve the streaming of multimedia.
3. Network coverage
Mobile network coverage is very important for adoption of digital technologies.
Without network connectivity, internet and non-internet-based solutions are unable to work. In Africa, mobile network providers typically quote high proportions of coverage in a country. However, the quoted coverage is for the part of the country that is thought to be potential viable markets. Areas that are very rural and remote typically lack coverage, and where available, the network connection is very poor.3
4. Internet and related infrastructure that enables access to digital solutions and technologies.
Compared to other regions, Commonwealth Africa has low proportions of people using the internet, that is, 30 per cent versus 43 per cent in the Pacific, 50 per cent in Asia, 64 per cent in Caribbean and Americas, and 88 per cent in Europe.
Within Commonwealth Africa, the usage of the internet varies from a low of 7 per cent in Nigeria to 64 per cent in Mauritius and 59 per cent in Seychelles.4
Part of the reason for the low usage of the internet in Commonwealth Africa is the high cost of the internet. The Alliance for Affordable Internet defines affordable mobile data as the kind that costs not more than 2 per cent of a consumer's monthly income.5 Most people living in Commonwealth African countries are charged an average of 7.1 per cent of their monthly salary for a gigabyte (GB) of mobile data. This is more than 3.5 times the affordable threshold.6 This could hence explain the paradox that a region with a 75 per cent population living in areas covered by mobile broadband only has less than 30 per cent of the mobile subscribers with internet connections.
As shown below, the average cost of internet in Commonwealth Africa is comparatively higher than all other regions of the Commonwealth.
Non-technology enablers
1.Youthful regional demography
Youthful demographic brackets are the largest numbers of early technology adopters.
The United Nations estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest growing youth population in the world. In the last couple of decades, the youth population in the region has grown by over 70, is expected to grow by over 17 per cent in the next 5 years and nearly double by 2050.
2.Changing Education levels of the farming population
52 Per cent of Africa’s total workforce is expected to have at least a secondary education by 2030 (versus 36 per cent in 2010)7
This matters because the educated population is more likely to have the digital literacy skills to make effective use of digital agricultural solutions. Literate farmers are more likely to be effectively used hand-held internet appliances, read device user manuals and install plant data sensors correctly in the field. Noteworthy is the fact that the inability to read and write does not inhibit mobile phone ownership. Illiterate users still make up a sizable share of mobile phone owners in the region. Illiteracy despite the pre-stated facts reduces the users’ ability to make the most of developed digital agricultural solutions.
3. Existence of mobile network friendly policies
In some parts of Commonwealth Africa, the policy environment is being made more mobile connectivity friendly specifically for mobile network operators to enable them effectively expand with minimal regulatory hurdles.
In Nigeria, for example,8 several state governments have reduced right-of-way fees for laying fibre-optic cables by up to 95 per cent to enable the efficient and timely rollout of network infrastructure. Policies like these lower the capital expenditure costs for the mobile network operators which supports the enhancement of coverage for mobile broadband connections.
4. The rise of alternative financing models for model devices
Alternative financing arrangements are also a great enabler for digitalisation of agriculture in the region.
The success of the mobile-enabled Pay-As-You-Go model for the provision of affordable home solar equipment, agricultural equipment and other household assets has brought to light the opportunity to make variants of mobile devices accessible to more rural consumers through similar financing schemes.
This form of financing for mobile devices reduces the initial cost of entry barrier for many of the rural poor.8 The daily rather than monthly payment options reflect the financial culture and abilities of many smallholder farmers in the region; many of whom earn a daily wage and can only afford smaller payments on a regular basis than one-time complete payments.
Technology barriers
1. Poor infrastructure
Less than 35 per cent of rural SSA is connected to national electricity grids.9
This effectively means that mobile broadband operators have increased operating expenditure to run and maintain the much-needed mobile broadband networks that facilitate farmers’ access to mobile internet. The result is a higher cost of connectivity (internet) for the final consumers.
Additionally, the majority of the roads in Commonwealth Africa are not paved (shown in the table below). Poor road network is more so common in rural hard-to-reach areas, where agriculture is concentrated. For this reason, mobile network operators are disincentivised from setting up in such areas.
2. Absence of updated regulation
The current rules and regulations being used by many Governments in SSA were developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.10
The pioneering laws and policies made little or no mention of emerging digital technologies such as big data and analytics, blockchain, the Internet of Things, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, unmanned aerial vehicles and privacy-related complications of dealing with farmer data with a wide range of unique identifiers.
3. Fragmented and heterogenous agricultural terrain
A technical limiter of the implementation of many digital agriculture solutions, especially those that rely on aerial imagery, is the inbuilt natural complexities of the agricultural layout in SSA.
This includes among others a very heterogenous and highly intercropped farming system and a culture of subsistent rain-fed agriculture.
Heterogeneous nature of farming systems and poor and unavailable crop yield databases limits the ability of the agriculture sector to leverage big data and remote sensing technologies.11 This arises from the fact that aerial imagery-based remote sensing farm solutions are best applied to large homogeneous farming systems and systems that avail data.
4. Uncoordinated rollout of digital solutions
The digital agriculture space in SSA is characterised by duplication of scattered knowledge, products and solutions.12
This effectively wipes out the subsequent economies of scale that would have resulted from the large-scale application of uniformly coordinated solutions and services.
5. Absence of robust accelerator programmes
From the deep dive done into the literature review, robust and well-coordinated accelerator programmes are absent. These programmes are typically important because they facilitate the effective coordination and absorption of talent into well-created capacity-building programmes.
Enabling environment conclusions
In conclusion, the technical and regulatory environments in the region remain far from ideal to facilitate the digitalisation of agriculture, based on the GSMA Mobile Connectivity Indices for Commonwealth Africa.
For most of the farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile devices are the primary access media for the consumption of digital agricultural solutions. The GSMA mobile connectivity index is an elaborate quantitative rank of technological and non-technological attributes that facilitate the use of mobile devices to consume digital services.
The GSMA mobile connectivity Index13 measures the enablers of mobile internet connectivity. This index provides an aggregated quantifiable measure for selected indicators enablers of mobile connectivity. These indicators are Infrastructure – the availability of high-performance mobile internet network coverage; Affordability – the availability of mobile services and devices at price points that reflect the level of income across a national population; Consumer readiness – citizens with the awareness and skills needed to value and use the internet, and a cultural environment that promotes gender equality; Content – the availability of online content and services accessible and relevant to the local population.
Footnotes
1 Google, International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, 2020. Economy Africa. Africa's $180 billion internet economy future.
2 Global System for Mobile Communications, 2020. The mobile Economy Sub-Saharan Africa.
3 Key informant interview with a Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection Expert(Agriculture Value Chains).
4 The Alliance for Affordable Internet, Alliance for Affordable internet 2018. Data retrieved on August 8, 2021. Retrieved from https://a4ai.org/extra/mobile_broadband_pricing_gnicm-2018Q4
5 The World Bank, World Bank indicator database. Data retrieved on August 8, 2021. Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.ZS
6 International Telecommunication Union, 2020, The affordability of ICT services 2020.
7 The World Economic Forum. (2017). The Future of Jobs and Skills in Africa.
8 Global System for Mobile Communications (2020). The mobile Economy Sub-Saharan Africa 2020.
9 Global System for Mobile Communications (2020). Mobile connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa: 4G and 3G connections overtake 2G for the first time. https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/blog/mobile-connectivity-in-sub-saharan-africa-4g-and-3g-connections-overtake-2g-for-the-first-time/
10 Wahab, I. et al. (2018). Remote Sensing of Yields: Application of UAV Imagery-Derived NDVI for Estimating Maize Vigor and Yields in Complex Farming Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.
11 Baumüller, H. and B.K. Addom (2020). The enabling environments for the digitalisation of African agriculture. https://www.ifpri.org/publication/enabling-environments-digitalization-african-agriculture
12 Key informant interview with Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection Expert.
13 The Global System for Mobile Communications, GSMA mobile connectivity index data. Data retrieved on August 8, 2021. Retrieved from https://www.mobileconnectivityindex.com/