Hoe or Phone: Which Would You Rather Farm With?
Chidindu Mmadu-Okoli, Joshua Agama, Tobi Raji, Gabriel Eze
A typical day in the life of Mallam Yakubu is a very busy one. A middle-aged man, with a family of 13, whose rice, soybean and maize farms in Auchan, were his only sources of livelihood. For him, catering to the basic needs of his 2 wives and 10 children -food, shelter and clothing- is the most honourable thing to do.
“I started farming about 35 years ago. I still farm to date. Truly, it was quite unproductive doing it without technology!” Yakubu responded when asked how he had been able to scout his 4.5 hectares of farmland in different locations before enrolling with Rural Farmers Hub (RFH). “During the farming season, it would take me several hours to walk around my rice farm, to check for pests (birds and rodents), adequate soil moisture, colour change in leaves, water level and to generally observe the wellbeing of my rice. At the peak of the rainy season, sometimes it becomes very difficult to enter my farm due to rising water levels in the rice swamp (FADAMA). In general, sometimes, what we put into the ground is smaller than what we get out during harvest.”
For farmers like Yakubu in Auchan (Kaduna State) or in similar sub-Sahel environments, farming requires much more than traditional know-how and implements. This farming method involves non-data driven farming and farm-scouting activities that are outdated compared to the ease and effectiveness of modern farming methods. The challenges posed in this type of farming are unpredictable. For instance, soil types and topographies largely influence the productivity of crop growth, based on its type, porosity, and organic matter.
This means that for farming to evolve, highly developed and data-driven farming methods are required to increase the productivity of farmers, over generations, to meet emerging socio-economic and farming challenges. These solutions are strongly tied to the need for digital and mechanized farming by smallholders. Digital farming involves the use of sensors (such as satellite and the Internet of Things) to monitor the intrinsic properties of the crop and soil that are largely not observable by the human eye. Armed with the early warnings from these sensors straight to their phones, farmers like Yakubu are able to be proactive with their farming decisions; mitigating issues before they are visible to the eyes. This kind of knowledge provides a launchpad to deploy drones pre-loaded with precision-intelligent maps from these sensors to deliver the targeted intervention, remotely.
Feeding the Future
Strengthening food security for Nigeria, one of the world’s fastest-growing populations, using traditional farming methods, is a daunting task. We have quickly learned that unforeseen events like the COVID-19 pandemic can disrupt the global food supply at a scale unimaginable. Governments and corporations are quickly exploring new ways of boosting regional food production so as to reduce the effects of such a global shock on local businesses that rely on them.
Having worked with thousands of farmers, we have learned that helping them increase their crop yield presents a new opportunity to address the food supply crisis. Like Yakubu, there are over 38 million smallholder farmers in Nigeria, who still rely on non-data-driven farming methods to grow food. With rising smartphone adoption among farmers, one would wonder why there is an inadequate large-scale drive towards precision farming.
The use of digital technology to integrate and optimize agricultural production from farm to fork requires tools for digitally collecting, storing, analyzing and sharing electronic data and/or information along the agricultural value chain. Digital tools could power smallholder farmers at scale, so that farming activities can easily be monitored right from their phones, without the need to move around the farmlands and check for individual crop defects.
With phone farming, core activities like seeding, soil testing, fertilizer application, nurturing and harvesting can be done with much more relative ease and targeting; alongside other important advisories that drives them, i.e., weather insight, soil type determination and ecological advantages.
The adoption rates of precision farming vary across continents, with Europe and Asia having a higher adoption rate than Africa. This is consequential because it is cheaper to import food from these continents than it is to buy locally. For example, a recent report on Agriculture in Africa shows that the average yield for cereals in Africa (1.6 tonnes per hectare) is less than the global average of 4.2 tonnes/hectare (Europe) and 2.5 tonnes per hectare (Asia). This yield gap explains why it is cheaper for food companies to import some or a significant portion of their raw materials. With every such transaction, money that should have ended up in the hands of farmers, takes flight to the foreign markets, to a monetary value of $4.2 billion annually.
The agricultural sector is the largest in the Nigerian economy and is expected to grow steadily in the next decade. This growth is driven by a series of factors, most importantly, the government’s commitment to encouraging local production. An example of this is the agricultural promotion policy, introduced in 2016, which outlines measures to fund, co-ordinate and improve the quality of extension services. To achieve this growth, it will be critical for Nigeria to invest in the productivity of its smallholder farmers. Around 88% of Nigeria’s farmers (roughly 38 million) are smallholders, defined by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in 2020, as farmers with less than 10 hectares of land. About 43% of these farmers own/manage less than 1 hectare of land, while 21% constitute farmers managing 1–2 hectares of land.
These farmers are often located in rural areas with poor access. To overcome this challenge, it is paramount to leverage mobile phone networks which have scaled rapidly in Nigeria in recent years. Mobile phone penetration has now reached 96%, creating an enabling environment for digital and precision farming. In select communities in Northern Nigeria, Rural Farmers Hub has helped to tremendously improve the productivity and yield of over 5000 farmers in 4 states since 2019, using precision farming; with additional expansion planned for 2021, for up to 10,000 farmers.
“In the previous farming season, I did farm without the knowledge of Capture, but when AGRA and SG2000 brought new innovation for farming, looking at our problems especially fertiliser recommendation and application, I got more crop yield this year. I was so happy with how much I made from not losing my crops. The previous year, I made 150,000 NGN from my rice farm. The next season, I recorded an income of 270,000 NGN. When I sold them, I had extra funds to send two of my children, to a popular private school here in Auchan, without any financial pressure.” Yakubu shares the impact of leveraging the precision tool, Capture, as his income rises to 80% from 2019.
With phone farming, smallholder farmers, especially those in vulnerable populations, irrespective of their farm sizes, are able to save time, labour, money and other resources, whilst producing timely, healthy and readily available food; using a combination of precision farming and e-extension advisory that provides important information on their farm, soil health, crop health, weather updates, so that they become proactive, build resilience or alternatives to climate issues and other related challenges that come up during the farming season.
For Yakubu, using phone farming (i.e. Rural Farmers Hub’s e-extension tool called, Capture) has been rewarding. With as little as N2,500 per hectare, he has been able to receive precise and reliable information for his rice farm. It is cost-effective from the get-go to move from “hoe to phone” as it offers opportunities to farmers in poor, rural communities to access precision farming, receive market information, and crop advisory services. They are also aware of what to expect and to plan or prevent emergencies. Farmers will not just feed themselves and their families, they will feed the future.
By signing up for a demo session, smallholder farmers and farm associations or agents can learn more about how Capture provides timely information on crop watch and weather insights from the comfort of their homes. Also, where farm sizes are considerably large, registered farmers can have access to drone rental services for an extra, affordable fee, which allows for precise fertilizer and/or pesticide application. This service is also available via SMS and voice messages for farmers without access to the internet.
Click to Request a Demo Session to learn how to get started with Capture.
The cost of adopting digital agriculture methods on farms is cheaper and more effective compared to the cost of using crude, non-data driven and less effective farming methods. To maximize smart farming in Africa and Nigeria, insight-driven education is relevant for rural farmers who require an accelerated adoption of a proven, cost-effective, scalable strategy for increasing long-term farm production and improving the livelihoods of poor, rural people.
Click to Request a Demo Session to learn how to get started with Capture.
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