Locally Led Development
Local actors leading the charge in the design, deployment, and uptake of digital agriculture solutions, content, and enabling policies
Some of the potential topics for discussion under Locally Led Development include:
The use of ICT-enabled agriculture for stakeholders beyond farmers
The use of ICT for Agriculture has impacted the lives of farmers globally, resulting in value propositions such as improvement in on-farm crops; labor or livestock productivity; better resilience to mitigate, adapt, and recover from shocks; income generation and diversification; and reduced vulnerabilities. However, today there are several other use-cases of ICTforAg amongst the wider ecosystem, including service providers, financial institutions, research organizations, venture capitalists, donors, Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), and even governments. Identifying use-cases, value propositions, and lessons learned by rolling out tech-based solutions to farmers (such as farm improvement and customer acquisition) can be useful to broader ecosystem actors.
Addressing human capital shortage for ICTforAg
For many job seekers around the world, agriculture is perceived as a risky career path. At the same time, with an increase in the adoption of ICT-enabled services globally, the demand for skilled ICT professionals has greatly surpassed the supply. In geographies such as Sub-Saharan Africa, ICTforAg enterprises struggle to hire and retain talent, with high attrition of skilled professionals and increased outsourcing of core functions, which often act as barriers to growth. Solutions to address the human capital gap in ICTforAg are much needed.
Low tech vs high tech: How to evaluate the most appropriate solution?
Small-holder farmers often do not have the ability and willingness to pay for high-tech solutions, and may not have the digital literacy to engage with such solutions. At the same time, larger corporations operating in organized supply chains may benefit from high-tech solutions that help them to reduce labor cost and optimize production. The deployment of high-tech or low-tech solutions is also conditional on parameters such as available physical and digital infrastructure in local contexts. Providing context-informed guidelines for ICTforAg solution providers and showcasing local innovators that have developed low- or no-cost ICT solutions or digital tools for their community can allow for better decision-making.
Corporate supply chains and ICTforAg - Exploring symbiotic synergies
Corporations globally have high sourcing standards and are often committed to sustainability goals, while focusing on profitability. By digitizing supply chains, ICT can play a key role in supporting corporates to meet their goals. At the same time, by partnering with corporates, ICTforAg enterprises can potentially scale-up operations faster, rather than through a business-to-consumer (B2C) approach. Different partnerships are possible between corporates and ICTforAg enterprises that can help each achieve their individual goals while stimulating large-scale awareness and adoption of ICTforAg solutions.
The role of blended finance in stimulating locally led development
ICTforAg solution providers face several challenges in accessing finance. First, in several geographies, mainstream venture capitalists deem agriculture risky and avoid investing in early-stage start-ups. Second, inventory-based solutions and vertical commerce platforms that engage with farmers witness working capital shortage. Third, most financial institutions offer short-term loans and vanilla products, while solution providers often need patient capital and customized solutions. Fourth, solution providers struggle to report impact, as monitoring and evaluation is often expensive. Blended finance tools and instruments could be leveraged to solve such challenges.
The role of grassroots farmer organizations in scaling ICTforAg solutions
The majority of farmers in the global south are small or marginal landholders, and to increase their negotiation power, they collectivize and form farmer organizations. Such organizations can be critical demand centers for ICTforAg solutions. Moreover, when demand for such solutions is created using a bottom-up approach, the probability of continued usage of ICT-enabled technologies increases. Community-based organizations, including grassroots farmer organizations, can play a key role in scaling ICTforAg solutions.
Developing ecosystems to foster local entrepreneurship in ICTforAg
Agricultural challenges are very context-specific and often require localized expertise to solve. Consequently, for ICT-enabled solutions to be effective at scale, it is important to seed and foster local entrepreneurship, rather than relying on the import of solutions. However, entrepreneurs in the domain of ICTforAg face many challenges due to the lack of an enabling ecosystem, including limited patient capital, availability of skilled human resources, lack of physical and digital infrastructure, and absence of strong action-oriented policies and regulations. Developing enabling ecosystems for seeding and supporting local entrepreneurs in the domain of ICTforAg is imperative.