The exact figures vary considerably by crop, country and measurement method. The discrepancy is itself revealing: In many markets, we do not know precisely where losses occur or which interventions would have the greatest effect.

This post-harvest crisis is often presented as an infrastructure problem. Africa does need more warehouses, refrigerated vehicles, processing facilities and reliable electricity, but beneath these physical constraints lies another, less visible problem: an information deficit.

Under the , African leaders have set a goal of reducing post-harvest losses by 50% by 2035. Meeting that ambition will require continued investment in storage, energy, transport and processing. But building more infrastructure without improving the flow of information risks reproducing today鈥檚 inefficiencies at a larger scale.

Data drought impacts food security

Agricultural value chains frequently lack timely, reliable data about what has been harvested, where it is stored, how quickly it must reach market and where demand exists. Without this visibility, businesses cannot co-ordinate transport, plan processing capacity or intervene before produce spoils. Infrastructure is essential, but it cannot deliver its full value when decisions are based on incomplete or outdated information.

What we often call food loss is therefore also the result of disconnected decisions. A processor may not know that a harvest is arriving early. A logistics provider may lack the information needed to allocate refrigerated transport, and a warehouse operator may identify a temperature breach only after a shipment has deteriorated. Farmers without access to market signals may sell immediately after harvest, when prices are lowest, because they cannot assess whether storage would produce a better return.

Artificial intelligence can help close these gaps by turning fragmented operational data into co-ordinated action. Yield forecasts can give processors and distributors earlier visibility of expected supply. Connected sensors can monitor temperature and humidity during storage and transport. Predictive models can identify spoilage risks, while intelligent planning systems can match products with available warehouse capacity, vehicles, processing facilities and buyers.

Building a connected agri value chain

The greatest opportunity, however, comes from connecting these capabilities across the value chain. A temperature alert has limited value if it does not trigger a logistics response. A yield forecast cannot prevent waste if procurement, labour and processing plans remain unchanged. Traceability data will not unlock premium export markets unless it flows into quality management, compliance reporting and financial systems.

Enterprise technology plays a critical role by linking procurement, inventory, manufacturing, quality, logistics, finance and traceability, intelligent business systems to create a shared operational picture from farm gate to retailer. AI then helps organisations anticipate disruptions, co-ordinate responses and continuously adjust plans as conditions change.

These systems can support practical decisions: redirecting vulnerable produce to the nearest processor, prioritising a refrigerated shipment, adjusting warehouse labour ahead of a delivery, or identifying a quality risk before goods reach an export customer. Over time, this moves agricultural supply chains from reacting to losses toward preventing them.

Technology tailored to local conditions

We can already see elements of this model taking shape. are making refrigeration more accessible to small-scale producers in Nigeria. Digital sourcing platforms are helping incorporate farmers into formal value chains; one in partnership with was designed to connect 850 000 Nigerian maize producers with buyers and services. The next step is to bring infrastructure, farm-level information and enterprise operations together as one connected system.

Local conditions and infrastructure must be considered. Many smallholders do not own smartphones or have dependable connectivity. Successful solutions will therefore need offline capabilities, simple mobile interfaces and trusted intermediaries who can capture information and deliver insights locally. Technology should accommodate the realities of African agriculture rather than assume every farmer is continuously connected.

Better visibility over agricultural value chains also offers benefits beyond food security. Traceable, well-managed supply chains can strengthen access to finance, support sustainability reporting and help agricultural businesses meet the quality and compliance requirements of high-value export markets. Reducing losses improves margins without requiring more land, water or agricultural inputs, delivering both an economic and an environmental opportunity.

Africa needs an intelligent, connected value chain capable of seeing problems early and co-ordinating action across organisational boundaries.

When physical infrastructure is combined with trusted data and AI-enabled operations, post-harvest loss becomes a preventable failure that businesses, governments and technology partners can address together.

Shiraz Khota

Managing Director: Emerging Africa

The post Intelligent Systems can Fix Africa鈥檚 Post-harvest Crisis appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

• Nigerian smallholder maize farmers and agriculture value chain gain access to digital tools to boost productivity, profit.

• Community agents to ease adoption among farmers not familiar with technology.

Africa鈥檚 most populous country and largest economy faces rising food insecurity as a combination of a mostly informal agriculture sector and growing population puts pressure on the country鈥檚 food resources. According to the , food insecurity increased from 6% of the Nigerian population in 2007 to 13.4% in 2017.

The agriculture sector is the largest contributor to the Nigerian economy and . However, according to the UN鈥檚 Food and Agriculture Organisation, food production in Nigeria is undermined by a number of factors, among them poor planting material and insufficient use of fertiliser, leading to a growing reliance on food imports.

In support of smallholder farmers and improved food security in Nigeria, the Convention on Business Integrity鈥檚 for-profit arm, CBi Innovations Limited (CBiIL) has chosen the 麻豆原创 Rural Sourcing Management solution to support 850聽000 small maize producers and integrate them into the agricultural value chains.

Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director: Central Africa at 麻豆原创, says support of smallholder farmers in Nigeria will provide greater food security while also empowering farmers and other players in the agri value chain to unlock greater economic opportunities. 鈥淪mallholder farmers cultivate plots that are on average 2ha in size, and earn less than $1,000 a year,鈥� says Guerreiro. 鈥淲e believe that by equipping them with better information and providing access to more suppliers and greater selling opportunities, we can improve smallholder farmers鈥� productivity and output. This will have the dual benefit of greater food security as well as improved economic opportunities for the farmers, who typically support multiple family members with the money raised from selling their produce.”

The 麻豆原创 Rural Sourcing Management solution includes a mobile application that enables better tracking and collecting of data related to farms, crops, farmers and produce sales. Before it was launched as a standard solution in 2017, it was piloted in partnership with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The solution has been used by governments and large agri producers across Africa to better track and manage crop outputs and give smallholder farmers improved access to information, market data and selling opportunities across the agri value chain.

According to CBiIL CEO Soji Apampa, CBiIL is already working with Nestle Nigeria to build an ecosystem of young maize agripreneurs in partnership with AGRA, and this new opportunity will accelerate plans to meet set goals of empowering maize farmers in the region leveraging technology. CBiIL has also trained hundreds of Community Livelihoods Information Field Entrepreneurs (LIFE) Agents, young unemployed graduates that are recruited from the communities in which they will serve.

鈥淏y deploying the Community LIFE Agents kitted out with devices running 麻豆原创 Rural Sourcing Management, CBiIL will enable effective and efficient aggregation of smallholder producers in ways that support predictability of volumes and quality of production. Data aggregation is a key component of this service and we leverage technology to achieve every milestone along the chain,鈥� says Apampa.

The design is for each LIFE agent to support between 50 and 100 smallholder farmers equipped with an Android device on which various applications are installed to facilitate various streams of business to support the village level eco-system. They will receive commission on the products and services (inputs, telephone credit, banking, extension support and more) they provide to farmers, as well as a premium based on the productivity growth of each of the farmers with whom they work.

Cathy Smith, Managing Director for 麻豆原创 Africa, says the project marks another milestone in 麻豆原创 Africa鈥檚 commitment toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goals 1 (No Poverty) and 2 (Zero Hunger).聽鈥淭hrough our efforts to building greater food security, we also provide additional value to stakeholders across the agri聽value chain by improving access to sustainably sourced rural produce. The success of this project may also serve as a template for similar projects elsewhere in Africa. With 60% of all jobs in Africa currently in the agriculture sector and an estimated 250 million smallholder farmers, any impact we make here has the potential of bringing significant benefits to local communities, industries and the economy as a whole.鈥�

The post CBiIL鈥檚 麻豆原创 technology empowers Nigerian Farmers appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.