Cameroon’s Digital Leap: Quadrupling Farm Incomes
If the country wins the challenge of defying all limits to the implementation of the digitalization project, it could be a game-changer in the transformation of small-scale agriculture.
The World Bank has played a pivotal role in this digital transformation by providing a substantial $100 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA). This funding is directed towards promoting digital inclusion and leveraging digital solutions in agriculture. The initiative, known as the Acceleration of the Digital Transformation of Cameroon, is a comprehensive project with multiple facets.
One of the key components of this project is the improvement of the strategic, policy, and regulatory environment. This will pave the way for a vibrant, safe, and inclusive digital economy. By reducing the digital divide, especially in rural areas, and facilitating the implementation of data-driven solutions, the project aims to boost innovation in the agricultural sector.
The significance of agriculture in Cameroon cannot be overstated. It contributes around 17% of the country’s GDP and is a primary source of livelihood for a significant portion of the population. The digitalization of agriculture addresses a crucial need by generating real-time statistics on value chains, which can lead to more informed decision-making and efficient practices.
The expected outcomes of this digital leap are manifold. Improved broadband access and affordability, connecting public buildings such as hospitals and schools, fostering digital entrepreneurship, and providing support to smallholder farmers are just a few of the anticipated benefits. These efforts are not only aimed at increasing economic growth and productivity but also at creating job opportunities and enhancing the overall quality of life for Cameroonian residents.
As the world moves towards a more interconnected and technologically advanced future, Cameroon’s initiative serves as an inspiring example of how digitalization can transform traditional sectors and bring about profound economic and social benefits. The success of this project could very well set a precedent for other nations looking to modernize their agricultural practices and improve the livelihoods of their citizens.
On 17 April, the Cameroon Chamber of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry (CAPEF) partnered with the African Confederation of Agropastoral Actors (C-3A) and the French company Amaya to support 500,000 agricultural actors through digitalization. This 5-year contract should establish a sustainable and competitive ecosystem of production, processing, and digitalization in the agricultural sector through the integral management of farms, the centralization of data, the monitoring of activities, and the simplified management of crops for informed decision-making, among others. Thus, digital technologies (drones, field sensors, big data, or machine learning) could cause “a new agricultural revolution” in Cameroon, where small producers produce 80% of food, as highlighted by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). “The innovation with this app is that it can operate without the internet. The user will be able to make an update when connecting to the internet. There is also the possibility of sending information SMS messages to our farmers, no matter where they are. With several sectors, we are in the process of setting up an ecosystem for the benefit of stakeholders in Cameroon. Around this ecosystem there are financial partners, insurance partners,” said Armand Doudjo, Chairman of the Executive Board of C-3A. Approached by EcoMatin, Bongogne Nanga, an agronomist specializing in oilseeds, says that digital solutions could increase the production and sales capacity of Cameroonian farmers through the enhanced traceability of products but also the interconnection between producers and consumers. “Generally speaking, the digitalization of agriculture helps the agro-industrial sector and governments to have a better vision of their objectives, which allows them to better adapt their products, services, and policies to the service of agricultural development. It works elsewhere, it will work here as well.” Indeed, the blockchain platform used by Walmart in the United States indicates that the traceability of data improved by digitization reduces the time needed to trace the journey of a mango, from the tree to the market, or even to the supermarket, from 7 days to 2.2 seconds. According to the agronomist, digitalization could have a strong impact on the transformation of agriculture, the improvement of products, the city, and the increase of incomes. “The government should seriously consider the benefits it could derive from digitalization as part of its agricultural transformation strategy. Digitalization is the ideal option to multiply revenues by at least 4 at each level of the scale,” he says. However, the project to digitalize agriculture is proposed in a context that presents more limitations than opportunities, including the lack of financing, connectivity infrastructure, and accessibility to digital technologies. Most stakeholders in the agricultural sector are pessimistic about the effectiveness of this project. Yane Boloh, a CTA-certified agricultural economist who was also contacted by EcoMatin, notes that “the opportunity is certainly right, but we need to be less naïve about the challenges and the considerable work required by agribusiness companies, governments, and investors to maximize the transformative impacts of digital agriculture in the years to come”. In addition, in his analysis, the agricultural economist indicates that “based on the current context, the number of active users will be relatively low. If we take into account the fact that young people are less represented in the sector, we can estimate that only 10 to 20% of the 500,000 players will be very active on a digital service or similar.”
