Sub-Saharan Africa: “Info-Agritech” a Potential Game Changer

Abstract

The UN 2030 SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) identifies agriculture as one of the sectors unparalleled in terms of its potential to support human development whilst, simultaneously, supporting sustainable economic growth. By assisting farmers in developing countries to become as least as productive as their counterparts in the developed world, agricultural productivity can therefore be used as a key strategic socio-economic change agent. In Africa and in particular sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture has a significant socio-economic impact. This sector is on average the largest source of employment, but plagued by low productivity, it does not translate into an equal quantum of economic contribution. Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is well suited to benefit in this space, with a rapidly growing population, large under-utilised agricultural areas and low traditional agricultural productivity. Rapid simultaneous technological development in the so-called SMACT (BTC http://www.boston-technology.com/smact/accessed 5 July 2018) group in particular holds great promise to assist farmers in developing world. The idea of this essay is to explore how satellite technology can act as an enabler of ``Info-Agritech''---(the application of information technology in agriculture)---in terms of the sub-Saharan Africa agricultural sector.