Agricultural digitization which applies the use of digital technologies and data in the agricultural sector has a key role to improve productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. The technology involves the integration of digital tools, such as sensors, drones, and data analytics, into various aspects of farming and agricultural practices. For this reason, it plays a significant role to increase efficiency, agriculture precision, data driven decision making, supply chain management, access to information and others. Seeing the socioeconomic role of the system the Ethiopian government is working aggressively to benefit the society from the system.
Ethiopia being home to the second largest African population is undertaking various measures to transform its economy and improve the lives of the society. The country has been given due attention to the agriculture sector. It is among the five pillars of the economy. Efforts are underway to modernize the sector and improve the lives of numerous smallholder farmers.
However, there are challenges that hinder the implementation of agricultural digitalization and the sector’s modernization. Recently, the country announced the issuance of a national ID that aims to help the society to access services and products without limitation throughout the country.
Recently, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) host a forum on a national strategy to boost climate-smart agriculture in Ethiopia at the ILRI campus under the theme “Shaping Agriculture for Greater Impact in Ethiopia” from 15-20 October 2023.
On the occasion, Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute Deputy, CEO Yifru Tafesse (PhD) said that the Ethiopian government has been taking various measures to digitize the agriculture sector and improve the lives of smallholder farmers across the country.
In this regard, the effective implementation of national ID program is important to synchronize digital agricultural services and improve the role of technology in the agricultural sector.
“The national ID will have paramount importance in the financial, health, education, agriculture, and other sectors. The national ID program said expedites agricultural digitization and promotes the national socio-economic development endeavors.”
The expert underscored that the ongoing national ID program being implemented by the government sought to expedite the country’s agricultural digitization process. Accordingly, farmers are now accessing latest agricultural experts’ recommendations through hotline and other digital instruments on different queries regarding their agricultural practices. Thus, if the national ID program is fully implemented in the rural areas of the country, the farmers will have the opportunity to access agricultural inputs timely, experts’ advice, and meteorological forecasts, among others easily on their mobile phones.
According to him, it is predicted that there are more than 19 million household level farmers in Ethiopia. In the neighboring country Kenya, there are six million farmers and they are digitized and geo-referenced with their available land resources and other assets through integrating with latest agricultural technologies. Transforming Kenyan farmers to access digital agricultural information is possible through applying national ID and connecting them with digital platforms.
Therefore, the implementation of national ID integrated with digital instruments immensely contributed to the socio-economic development of farmers. In doing so, the country’s agricultural mechanization, production and productivity have shown a promising progress and able to export various agricultural products to other countries. Therefore, pertinent stakeholders should work jointly to expedite agricultural digitization and the national ID program in the country, he noted.
Moreover, having integrated partnerships is fundamental to transform the sector, he said. On her part, AICCRA Program Director Ana Maria Loboguerrero (PhD) said that AICCRA stands for accelerating the impact of CGIAR climate research for Africa.
The main objective of AICCRA is to enhance access of climate-smart agricultural technologies and climate information services in Africa, she reiterated.
Currently, AICCRA is working focusing on six African countries: Ethiopia, Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Zambia, and Kenya. In addition, it also extends its services at regional level in west and south eastern Africa, she said.
She highlighted the great importance of supporting the AICCRA project through integrated partnerships among stakeholders to reach the CGIAR scientists’ innovations to the smallholders African farmers and benefit them from latest technologies.
AICCRA Ethiopia Country Coordinator, Dawit Solomon (PhD), emphasized that Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) is crucial to transform the livelihoods of the smallholder farmers in the country.
As to him, AICCRA projects forge ground-breaking partnerships to deploy the knowledge, innovation, and technology needed for effective climate information services and climate-smart agriculture in Ethiopia. So far, the project benefited 420,076 smallholder farmers in the country.
Accordingly, AICCRA is a project that helps to deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Biodiversity and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank.
The draft Digital Identity Proclamation has been ratified by the House of Peoples’ Representatives with the aim of establishing a uniform and reliable identity registration system in Ethiopia. After receiving approval from the Council of Ministers, the proclamation was referred to the Parliament in August of the previous year.
It is expected that the digital identification system would play a significant role in facilitating various Government and private services. The National ID Program, which aims at issuing Digital IDs to over 70 million citizens and residents of Ethiopia by the end of 2025, has already signed an agreement with the Ministry of Revenues (MoR) to link tax identification numbers (TIN) with national IDs. This is expected to enable the MoR to save the foreign exchange that it uses to purchase systems for the issuance of TIN.
Accordingly, the Digital ID program has launched a pilot test of the ID platform called Fayda and currently has registered more than 1.4 million residents. According to the program’s latest updates, the Digital ID pilot program is currently registering an average of 5,250 registrations per day.
BY TEWODROS KASSA
The Ethiopian Herald October 29/2023
