How technology is powering sustainable growth in Africa

Climate-smart agriculture helps to achieve development goals, including reducing hunger and poverty by predicting the weather, growing high-value crops and connecting with agriculture experts for assistance. PHOTO | POOL

Despite being the world’s lowest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, Africa is becoming increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events.

Countries such as Kenya, which is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years, and Nigeria, which has lost 600 lives in the worst flooding in a decade, are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.

The World Bank estimates that nearly 282 million Africans are currently malnourished because of factors such as drought, environmental degradation and displacement. Each flood or drought reduces food security by five-20 percent and the continent’s food import bill could reach $110 billion by 2025 unless a significant change is implemented through climate-resilient farming.

Floods, heatwaves, and droughts endanger the livelihoods and lives of one-sixth of the world’s population.

With agriculture providing 70 percent of Africa’s livelihoods, governments and organisations should partner to find innovative solutions to precision farming using advanced technologies to revolutionise food production and eliminate hunger and poverty in the continent.

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Africa must adapt to unpredictable conditions by improving natural resources management and implementing sustainable practices in industries such as agriculture and energy.

Digitalisation is critical to sustainability and Africa is no exception. Embracing technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, the cloud and the Internet of Things has the potential to transform the continent.

To address current food security and climate change challenges, agriculture must become climate-smart.

Agricultural technological advancements will help meet the growing demand for farm automation, digitisation and sustainability.

Climate-smart agriculture helps to achieve development goals, including reducing hunger and poverty by predicting the weather, growing high-value crops and connecting with agriculture experts for assistance.

Governments and organisations have pledged to address Africa’s climate crisis, but they will require support to meet these targets. This support should be backed up by tech-powered solutions to accelerate progress toward a more sustainable future through real-world impact.

Tech firms play an important role in assisting partners across Africa to embrace and leverage the power of digitalisation. Microsoft, for example, is a founding participant in The Carbon Call, a global initiative that uses data streams, 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 Lab into Egypt and Kenya, as informed by a new Africa AI Innovation Council.

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To reduce emissions, meet targets and enable Africa’s sustainable development, every corporation and government needs support, whether through data, AI tools or digital infrastructure like the cloud.

Migwi is the Country Manager, Microsoft Kenya.