Digitalization for agriculture (D4Ag) is more than digitization for agriculture. It is more than digital solutions for agriculture. Dr.Benjamin Kwasi Addom, digital agriculture strategist at the Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands talked on “the concept of digitalization and smallholder agriculture” at a virtual workshop on digital agriculture for women entrepreneurs. Organized by the Asian Productivity Organization, in cooperation with the National Productivity Council of India, participants from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam joined this three-day workshop from Nov. 4 to 6, 2020.
The list of what one could digitalize (value chains, leading to digital value chains, etc.) is long. D4Ag (D4ag.com), as Dr. Addom explains, is “the use of digital technologies, innovations and data to transform business models and practices across the agricultural value chain; and address bottlenecks in productivity, post-harvest handling, market access, finance and supply chain management so as to achieve greater income for smallholder farmers, improve food and nutrition security, build climate resilience and expand inclusion of youth and women.”
The concept of digitalization for agriculture takes advantage of the process of digitization that facilitates the transition from analog-to-digital and crucial for big data and analytics. Four components of D4Ag cover digital agriculture innovations (digital solution use cases and digital technologies), big data and analytics (quality content and digital identity), business development services (financing and investment) and lastly, an enabling environment (infrastructure, policies, knowledge, literacy and business ecosystem).
See full article at Manila Times
