technology
How technology can drive sustainable growth in Africa
Monday, December 19, 2022
Climate-smart agriculture can help achieve development goals, including reducing hunger and poverty by predicting the weather, growing high-value crops, and connecting agricultural experts for help.photo | pole
Despite being the world’s lowest emitter of greenhouse gases, Africa is becoming increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events.
Countries such as Kenya, experiencing the worst drought in 40 years, and Nigeria, where the worst floods in a decade claimed 600 lives, bear the brunt of the climate crisis.
The World Bank estimates that nearly 282 million Africans are currently undernourished due to factors such as drought, environmental degradation and displacement. Each flood or drought reduces food security by 5-20%, and the continent’s food import bill could reach $110 billion by 2025 unless major changes are implemented through climate-resilient agriculture.
Floods, heatwaves and droughts threaten the livelihoods and lives of one sixth of the world’s population.
With agriculture providing 70% of livelihoods in Africa, governments and organizations should collaborate to find innovative precision farming solutions that leverage advanced technologies to revolutionize food production on the continent and eradicate hunger and poverty.
READ: Sustainable development matters for developing countries
Africa must adapt to unpredictable conditions by improving natural resource management and implementing sustainable practices in industries such as agriculture and energy.
Digitalization is critical to sustainability, and Africa is no exception. The adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, cloud and IoT has the potential to transform the continent.
To meet the current challenges of food security and climate change, agriculture must become climate-smart.
Technological advancements in agriculture will help meet the growing demand for farm automation, digitization and sustainability.
Climate-smart agriculture can help achieve development goals, including reducing hunger and poverty by predicting the weather, growing high-value crops, and connecting agricultural experts for help.
Governments and organizations have pledged to tackle Africa’s climate crisis, but they need support to achieve these goals. This support should be supported by technology-enabled solutions to accelerate progress towards a more sustainable future through real-world impact.
Technology companies are playing an important role in assisting partners across Africa to embrace and harness the power of digitalisation. For example, Microsoft is a founding participant in The Carbon Call, a global initiative that uses data streaming, machine learning, and cloud computing to improve the measurement, reporting, and verification of corporate emissions.
Microsoft is working to bridge the climate gap by expanding its AI for Good research labs to Egypt and Kenya, according to the newly formed Africa AI Innovation Council.
Read: Sustainability is today’s keyword
To reduce emissions, achieve goals and achieve sustainable development in Africa, every company and government needs support, whether through data, artificial intelligence tools or digital infrastructure such as the cloud.
Migwi is the country manager for Microsoft Kenya.