Digitalization for Sustainable Agriculture Production in Marginalized and Remote Communities

Background

This chapter explores current digital innovation technologies for sustainable agricultural production for use in marginalized African communities. African communities’ linkages with multinational companies unearth new markets. Technologies are documented so that recommendations are made to smallholder farmers to adopt technologies and electronic services for smart agriculture and farm productivity improvement hence marginalized and remote communities are put at the heart of digital technology research. Furthermore, this chapter will also discover the significance of electronic training of farmers and Agritex officers for extension-based technology transfer in remote areas. The elimination of technological gaps and digital illiteracy is a tool for auto-technical assistance.

Regardless of the benefits of digital technology, smallholder farmers in marginalized and remote areas experience many challenges in farming (FAO, 2014; Cheo and Tapiwa, 2021a). Various authors (Biles, 2006, Mupangwa et al., 2012, FAO, 2019) outlined various shocks of challenges that pertain to information such as (market, capital, climate change, and lack of modernized machinery). European Union (EU) (2017) notified the diversity of digital technologies that differ in terms of complexity and advance that can be accessed. Together, these technologies mentioned in the discussion promote a global village for better linkages of remote and marginalized farmers to participate in the value chain linkages, e-training, and advisory management.

Moreover, this chapter will also consider farmers' advisory management software through digitalization, such as climate forecasting (GIS and remote sensing), which encourages precision agriculture in marginalized rural areas. Farmers in remote areas where roads are bad will be exposed to various online advisory information from various sources. The use of farmers' advisory software through remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) in agriculture production in marginalized areas can improve production. For an agriculturally based country, reliable and timely information on the types of crops planted, their area, and predicted yield is critical. Shanmugapriya et al. (2019) postulated various benefits of remote sensing and modelling in creating graph-like linked markets.

Exploring digital market linkage value chain integration services for market transparency will be discussed for effective recommendations to farmers in remote communities. There will be a direct linkage of farmers with their consumers, eliminating overreliance on middlemen and maximizing profits. Marginalized farmers' involvement in the value chain will expose them to market information that links them to buyers and sellers. In addition, this chapter will explore opportunities and challenges for digital agriculture in remote and marginalized communities.