Leveraging Precision Agriculture for Sustainable Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Theoretical Discourse

Abstract

In most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), agricultural production and trade use conventional labor-intensive practices, which result in lower agricultural productivity, food insufficiency, hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Due to its potential benefits for multiple stakeholders, precision agriculture (PA) could transform the patterns of agricultural production and trade by contributing to the improvement of food security across the continent. Being a disruptive technology, the PA has a strong capacity to tackle the surmountable challenges of low agricultural productivity, food insecurity, and rural poverty. In this chapter, the authors address ten components of precision agriculture, including global positioning system (GPS), satellite imagery (SI), monitoring control systems (MCS), artificial plant growing techniques (APGT), soilless cultivation systems (SCS), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT), variable rate technology (VRT), and telematics systems (TS). The adoption of these components in the agricultural sector and trade in food products in the SSA will boost agricultural output, increase food exports, and directly strengthen the actualization of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. The authors suggest leveraging the PA for mitigating challenges to agricultural trade and food security in the continent.