Dr Ronald Tombe

In Kenya and South Africa, female farmers and those of a young age have still been marginalised despite the availability of Internet of Things technologies being made available by the state and other sectors. This includes essential services like farming seminars, educational facilities and digital services for entrepreneurial activities. Despite the potential of possessing internet-enabled digital devices, the information and communication technologies that can bridge the gaps to inclusiveness are severely underutilised.

This impacts food security, well-being and the socio-economic development of indigenous communities in poor rural and urban areas, and plays a fundamental role in achieving peace, safety and sustainable development. In Kenya and South Africa, agricultural production accounts for most informal employment. Women and youth are most affected by high unemployment and have inadequate access to essential services.

Dr Ronald Tombe’s Future Africa Research Leader Fellowship (FAR-LeaF) research project is titled ‘Inclusive agricultural transformation: Innovations and scaling of digital systems for enhancing productivity, knowledge preservation and incomes of indigenous communities’. He is passionate about research and creating contextualised software solutions that are easier to use and that enrich user experiences. This postdoctoral opportunity will be an avenue to share, learn and innovate digital solutions that will enable economy-sector stakeholders, such as students and business start-ups, to utilise technology learning and business tools contextualised in Africa for easy transacting.

There needs to be more integration in the agricultural chain to enable farmers to access markets easily, receive timely and reliable information on farming techniques from farmer-to-farmers and government agrarian agencies, and access credit based on their farming history.

The agricultural value chain supports well-experienced commercial producers, leaving little room for small-scale farmers, primarily women and youth; this leaves them lacking in skills and access to markets and capital. This, in turn, makes it difficult for these emerging farmers to have meaningful participation in the agricultural value chain.

Dr Tombe’s project aims to redress the imbalance to ensure the inclusion and participation of women and youth in the agricultural value chain. Governments have set up strategic initiatives such as agricultural parks that seek to create hubs of farming activities and include promising economic infrastructure.

Without coordination among the various players to align interests and drive the vision forward, these strategies will remain susceptible and vulnerable to endogenous and external pressures. Generally, agriculture has the highest potential for poverty reduction through food sufficiency and wealth creation. Effective digital solutions will enable farmers in developing countries to deal with challenges such as timely farming advice on farming practices, quick access to market information on farm produce and access to capital.