allianz unlocks east africa’s agro insurance

1 www.eastafrican-agrinews.com / East African Agrinews | January - March 2021 www.eastafrican-agrinews.com / East African Agrinews | January - March 2021 1

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Allianz unlocks East Africa’s agro insurance

AFDB wants Africa to strengthen food systems 7

Locust plague hits East Africa 14-15

Uganda’s coffee exports defy COVID-19 disruptions 16

COVID-19 accelerate digital tech use in agriculture 17-18

Youth urged to tap into Africa’s agriculture potential 22

Start-up spreads wings in digitization of smallholder farmlands 23

January - March 2021Volume 10 / Issue 1 US $6.30


INDEX

AGRICO IFC

IMPEX 5

GOWEIL 6

URALKALI 9

NARDI 13

BABOLNA TETRA 18

AGRO PLASMA 20-21

TSGC IBC

SCHULE OBC

Contents Editorial Comment

Protect your agriculture investments :.......5

Cover Story

Allianz unlocks East Africa’s agro insurance :.......6

Business, Companies & Markets

AFDB wants Africa to strengthen food systems :.......7Allianz Africa calls for more agric sector investment :.......7

Regional News

ACES to help farmers swiftly get produce to market :.......8Farmers’ cooperative society brings smiles... :.......10-11Kenya told to stop playing protectionism :.......12 Locust plague hits East Africa :.......14-15Smallholder farming households gets livestock training in Rwanda :.......16Uganda’s coffee exports defy COVID-19 disruptions :.......16

Insight

COVID-19 accelerate digital tech use in agriculture :.......17-18

International News

SA raise concerns on BRICS agriculture tariffs and non- tariffs :.......19Youth urged to tap into Africa’s agriculture potential :.......22

Technology News

Start-up spreads wings in digitization of smallholder farmlands :.......23


Publisher

Evans Mumba

General ManagerArnold Chinyembar

EditorAndrew Maramwidze

Associate EditorAndrew Miti

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Potipher TemboObert SimwanzaJeffrey Sinkamba

Sam Phiri

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Agnes MumbaChilopa Majorie Kasoma

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Editorial Comment

Protect your agriculture investments

ver the years farmers have been battling with locust plague and possibly only a few have benefitted from insurance, as most farmers are not insured.

With advent of COVID-19, more calls have been made for improved agri-

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culture sector but some farmers will fail due to the headwinds faced with no insurance cover to protect them

Remember, we have emphasized that sustainable agriculture is both an eco-nomic driver and a shield to food secu-rity, while the local economy will get a boost from a well oiled agriculture value chain, creating jobs and realising more income, our silos will remain filled to the bream. But all this could amount to zero if farmers are not protected from sud-den disasters that wipe out either infra-structure or produce yet to be harvested.

With insurance now readily available, informed decisions need to be tak-en up. Let the market introduce a va-riety of insurance policies, to cushion farmers from un-anticipated losses due to natural disasters and others.

Let all the stakeholders in agriculture rally behind initiatives to prop up insur-ance schemes and improve the sector’s resilience against unforeseen threats.

Statistics provided already indicate an op-portunity to utilise agriculture insurance for the benefit of both industries the agricul-ture sector and insurance industry, a barrel of opportunities sits on both value chains.

Analysts always say statistics help na-tions make more informed decisions, with the available data good policies and increased uptake of agriculture insur-ance should be witnessed on the bloc.

Commitment to food security should drive both public and private stakeholders to make informed decisions on insurance.

As we lobby for more drive to make things work in the agriculture sector, hope is on the horizon for a more sus-tainable agriculture industry with potential to grow the country’s food production.

Remember to send your comments, inquiries and letters.

Enjoy the read!

Andrew Maramwidze (Editor)


Cover Story

Allianz unlocks East Africa’s agro insurance llianz Africa has set eyes on the agriculture insurance sector in Kenya and East Africa, as estimates pegs the sector at US$10 million.

Statistics further indicate that the sector holds the potential to grow to $30 million. Allianz Africa has plans to partner with ag-gregators such as banks, cooperatives, agro-dealers, and com-modity associations to deploy solutions on the project.

Through a partnership with Jubilee Insurance established last year, Allianz Africa has set eyes on the bloc’s five African coun-tries where Jubilee Insurance currently operates.

The partnership covers the general insurance business in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as well as the short-term insurance seg-ment in Burundi and Mauritius.

JHL retains its ownership of its life and pensions operations and its medical insurance business in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.Lovemore Forichi, senior underwriter of Aagriculture at Allianz, said according to their estimates, agriculture insurance premium globally is $32 billion.

East Africa contributes about $18 million of which Kenya is about $10 million.

Meanwhile governments and the private sector in East Africa are working together to increase agriculture insurance penetration in the region,”. And less than five percent of the Kenya farming community is insured,” Forichi said.

The Kenyan government of President Uhuru Kenyatta and pri-vate sector are also actively contributing to the insurance pene-tration through premium subsidies for crop and livestock farm-ers.

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AFDB wants Africa to strengthen food systems frican Development Bank (AfDB) has challenged Africa to strengthen her food systems, as part of efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and build resilience.

Leila Mokaddem, AfDB) Director-General for Southern Africa said Removing bar-riers to agricultural development could spur a jump in Africa’s agricultural output from an yearly $280-billion to $1-trillion by 2030.

“The AfDB is championing the Technolo-gies for African Agricultural Transforma-tion (TAAT), a continent-wide initiative de-

signed to boost agricultural productivity across the continent by rapidly delivering proven technologies to millions of farm-ers,” Mokaddem said.

Other initiatives that underscore the bank’s leadership role in the sector are its financing of Special Agro-Industri-al Processing Zones to concentrate agro-processing activities within areas of high agricultural potential, as well as the pro-motion of climate-smart agriculture.

“AfDB is committed, in partnership with key stakeholders, to supporting agricul-tural transformation and calls on govern-

ments, multilateral development banks and other development partners to sup-port a technology development and de-livery mechanism required to achieve the transformation of African agriculture.”

Meanwhile University of Pretoria Vice-Chancellor Tawana Kupe noted that, “when they function well, food sys-tems have the power to bring together families, communities and nations.

“But too many of the world’s food sys-tems are fragile and vulnerable to col-lapse,” Kupe said.

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Business, Companies & Markets

Allianz Africa calls for more agric sector investment llianz Africa has called for more investment in the agriculture sector on the African continent.

The plea was made through webinar where a panel’s experts agreed that the development and commercialization of agriculture requires financial services that can support agricultural insurance stra-tegically for eradicating extreme poverty, boosting prosperity and protecting liveli-hoods.

“There is an ever increasing need to in-vest in agriculture, given its vital impor-tance as a food source, especially in view of the increase in global population,” said Delphine Traore, Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Allianz Africa.

Traore further said agriculture production makes up a substantial portion of the

continent’s GDP, yet only a small portion of the producers are insured.

“Raising awareness of the vital role that agriculture insurance plays in sustaining production is a key step to increasing in-surance penetration in the sector,” said Traore.

Traore said Allianz Africa aims to contrib-ute towards closing the protection gap and position itself as a leading agriculture (re)insurance provider on the continent, plus climate risks increase the need for investments to make agriculture more re-silient.

According to Reto Schneider, Regional Head of Agriculture at Allianz Re the ag-ricultural sector in the insurance indus-try could reach the potential of 1bn USD within 10 years, provided that penetration

can be substantially increased.

Meanwhile Gregoire Tombez, CEO of WARM Consulting Group Ltd and Co-founder of Green Triangle says de-spite certain limitations technology is closing the gap between indemnity and parametric crop insurance and allows getting the best of both worlds in a single product.

In 2020, the insurance industry recorded a cumulative premium of approx. 300mn USD from agricultural insurance.

The Southern and Eastern regions of Af-rica contributed more than 80 percent of the recorded premium with Eastern Africa recently recording an improvement in its trajectory.

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Regional News

ACES to help farmers swiftly get produce to market ew Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) has taken a major step forward in Rwanda with a $3.5 (£2.4 million) million funding boost.

The development comes after the UK department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) earmarked this contribution for the Centre’s design and technology kit-out, supporting the work of British universities (Birmingham, Heri-ot-Watt, Cranfield, London South Bank), the University of Rwanda and its hiring of the first-ACES dedicated academics as host of the Centre, and UNEP’s United for Efficiency (U4E) whose award-win-ning Rwanda Cooling Initiative with the Rwandan Government provides ACES’ foundation.

ACES will help get farmers’ produce to market quickly and efficiently – reducing food waste, boosting profits and creating jobs, as well as looking to improve cold-chains for vaccines and health, now rec-ognised globally as a key challenge for Covid-19 immunisation.

The Centre is bringing together energy, technology, finance and policy exper-tise from the UK and in-country. It offers an opportunity for commercial partners to develop and demonstrate pathways of delivering affordable, lowest carbon emissions cooling and cold-chain sys-tems while meeting Africa’s social and economic cooling needs.

In addition, will provide teaching and in-dustrial collaboration to put into action integrated sustainable cooling solutions.Meanwhile with assistance from core technical partners - the University of Birmingham and UNEP U4E –a range of complimentary funding opportunities are being pursued, from the Green Climate Fund to philanthropic and bilateral devel-opment agency support mechanisms.

With core resources and infrastructure, the Centre will establish a robust business model that enables long-term growth.

Associated ‘Living Labs’ will act as the deployment and implementation arms showcasing how solutions developed at the ACES hub in Kigali can be applied by communities and offer on-the-ground technical and business assistance as an

enabling environment for sustainable cold chain to thrive. The first Living Lab in rural Rwanda is anticipated for launch in 2022. Opportunities for additional Living Labs are being explored with other African gov-ernments to scale-up the reach of ACES.

“Farmers need robust means of getting perishable produce to urban markets and medical staff must move tempera-ture-sensitive vaccines to rural commu-nities, but cold chain logistics must be sustainable,” said Project co-designer and research lead Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy at the University of Bir-mingham.

“The long-term plan is that ACES be-comes the pan-Africa research/innova-tion, knowledge and learning Centre of choice for the cooling and cold-chain sectors - securing industrial and other collaborations to develop its research and reputation - in Rwanda, Africa and low-and middle-income countries around the world. It’s an ambitious goal, but we have

UK expertise and partnerships in Rwanda and UNEP’s portfolio in the wider region to make this happen,” said Peters.

The University of Birmingham and UNEP U4E are engaging international partners and industry to formalize a network of collaborators. ACES will be promoted at major international events later this year, including the UN Food Systems Summit, Montreal Protocol Meeting of the Parties (MOP33) and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) to raise awareness and encourage participation.

UNEP’s ACES lead and U4E cooling port-folio manager Brian Holuj reflected: “After over three years of strategic planning and development, we are delighted to have a permanent home and world-class team coming into place at the ACES headquar-ters in Kigali. The first Living Laboratory is being prepared to set the stage for similar collaborative efforts with showcase com-munities throughout Africa.”

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Regional News

Farmers’ cooperative society brings smiles to women and youths in Uganda yazanga Farmers’ Cooperative Society was founded in 1997 with a group of about 30 farmers who started a savings group in a small rented store. With some saving and marketing, the group grew from 30 to 1,098 farmers. These farm-ers are organized into 60 farmer groups with each group having between 25 to 30 farmers. Groups are spread across Ugan-da’s five districts - Lyantonde, Semba-bule, Rakai, Lwengo and greater Masaka. And each group has a change agent with whom Kyazanga Cooperative Society works closely.

The growth in participating farmer num-bers has been due to a number of rea-sons, one of which has been good part-nerships. The cooperative grows maize

and beans but specializes mostly in beans, to be specific: NARO Bean 1, 2 and 3. These varieties are sold to agro-dealers, seed companies and smallholder farmers.African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Part-nership (AFAP) started working with Kyazanga Cooperative Society in 2018 under the BMGF program, called the hub agrodealer development program. Under this program, AFAP has provided connec-tions to fertilizer markets; built the capac-ity of extension staff; and supported de-mand-creation activities by establishing demo plots. Many of these efforts have greatly improved the operations of the cooperative and boosted member loyalty.

At the beginning of 2020, the coronavi-rus did not seem to pose any danger to

Uganda and was largely viewed as Chi-na’s concern. However, as for many other Ugandan businesses, the pandemic took Kyazanga Farmers’ Cooperative Society by surprise, especially in terms of how rapidly it spread. Measures to reduce the transmission of the virus included restric-tions of both internal and international movement and the closure of schools. While these attempts may have contribut-ed to successfully slowing the spread of the virus, these restrictions also hit busi-ness operations extremely hard; Kyazan-ga Farmers’ Cooperative Society was, unfortunately, no exception to these neg-ative effects.

The cooperative experienced a slump in the prices of beans. A kilogram moved from 2,800 shillings (approximately 0.777 dollars) to as low as 1,500 shillings (ap-proximately 0.416 dollars).

“With these prices, farmers cannot get reasonable profits out of their products even if they sold an acre of beans,” Paul the manager for Kyazanga Farmers’ Co-operative Society explained.

The start of the lockdown precipitated re-strictions in movements, which affected the delivery of fertilizers to the respective farmers. Farmers could also not collect fertilizers because they did not have the means to transport them to their plots. Training on fertilizer use and application was equally halted since public gather-ings increase the risk of transmission.

However, the manager of Kyazanga Farmers’ Cooperative Society indicated that the society works with serious and committed farmers and that the cooper-ative is always willing to support them by offering technical advice and inputs cred-it. Harvest from the cooperative members in season 2020B was 80MT compared to 2020A which was 61MT of beans. Despite the effects of COVID-19 being at a peak, more yields were still realized in season 2020B.

AFAP has facilitated important links be-tween reputable fertilizer supply com-panies like Grainpulse and Yara East Af-rica and Kyazanga. These connections have encouraged some of these fertilizer companies, among which Grainpulse is included, to extend credit to members of the cooperative. Kyazanga was also

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lucky to receive part of a COVID-19 pack-age in the form of fertilizers from Yara International, which AFAP took the lead in distributing to its partners. A total of 280 smallholder farmers benefited from the Yara COVID-19 response, which took the form of 100kg of good-quality cereal fertilizer per farmer. This assisted in bal-ancing the farmers’ cash flows in a sea-son of great hardship and struggle. These connections and concomitant subsidized input prices have allowed the Kyazanga Farmers’ Cooperative Society to greatly contribute to increasing farmers’ profit-ability.

With initiatives like these and also sup-port from AFAP, Kyazanga has been able to provide part-time jobs to some of its members. This year since January 2021, Kyazanga has employed the largest num-ber of women and youth to date, averag-ing 15 people per day to sort beans. For each sorted bag, 13,000 Ugandan shil-lings is paid out (approximately 3.6 dol-lars). Those who are able to work quickly can usually sort a bag a day especially if they are sorting NARO Bean 1, which tends to be cleaner that the other vari-

eties. Kyazanga also decided to provide lunch for the women and youth during the day since they stay at work from nine in the morning to six in the evening. During the closure of schools, some children are accompanied by their parents who help them to generate some income for the family by sorting beans with them.

Stella Namwanje is one of the women employed at Kyazanga Farmers’ Coop-erative Society. She was once employed as a tailor mending clothes for as low as 1,000 shillings (approximately 0.2 dollars) per item. When her husband left her, she found that the money she earned wasn’t enough to provide for her and her child.“With the 7,000 Ugandan shillings (ap-proximately 1.94 dollars) I earn daily I am able to save up. This is especially true since Kyazanga also provides us with lunch,” Stella explained.

This lunch also lessens her worry of her child not eating due to lack of money or low pay. Stella Namwaje isn’t the only one who has greatly benefited from Kyazan-ga Farmer’s Cooperative Society and its support from AFAP. Other youths and

women have offered the following:

“I will use my money to buy books when the schools open,” said one of the youths.“This is better than my restaurant where I used to cook food. I do not spend money these days. I always made a loss until my friend told me to come here. I save 10,000 Ugandan shillings per day (approximate-ly 2.7 dollars) because I even have lunch here with my children,” commented Grace Nalugoti, one of the women.

“When I sort beans with my children, we are generating some income for the fami-ly. I can also monitor my children as leav-ing them at home alone is a risk. They can be exposed to many community tempta-tions like fighting, drinking and teenage pregnancy,” Grace added.

Though the pandemic has posed some serious challenges for the food system in the short term, it has nonetheless also demonstrated that agriculture is at the center of life in Uganda. Farmers and women especially are key players on the food-supply stage.


Regional News

Kenya told to stop playing protectionism astern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) has challenged Kenya to stop poli-cies that restrict regional trade.

The call comes after a month’s ban on maize imports from Uganda and Tanza-nia, which Kenya’s Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) said was unfit for human consumption due to high levels of afla-toxins.

Uganda’s Pearl Dairy, which produces Lato milk, had earlier been slapped with an export ban by Kenya, a move that hit the neighbouring country’s dairy sector with the firm laying off at least, 1,500 em-ployees.

The ban was imposed after several com-plaints by Kenyan farmers over the influx of Ugandan milk, which had seen a litre touch a historic low of Sh17.

Kenya confiscated thousands of tonnes of milk from Uganda and consequently stoped imports.

The country, which is the region’s eco-nomic powerhouse, has also had previ-ous fall-outs with Tanzania where in Sep-tember 2018, it hit back at her neighbour by imposing new tariffs on Tanzania prod-ucts like flour.

This was after the neighbouring country ignored a deal that granted Kenyan-made chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, and sweets unrestricted entry into its market.Trade tension between Kenya and Ugan-da however rose this month after AFA, on March 5, banned its maize exports into the country, with Uganda retaliating by discouraging imports from Kenya.

EAFF led agriculture sector stakeholders including cooperatives, farmers, experts and government officials from the region to discuss challenges and a way forward mainly on the maize and dairy sector, a

week-long forum that was held in Nairobi.“We feel that Kenya is starting to practice protectionism policies without even con-sulting its own stakeholders and actors in the agriculture sector. We are concerned about the way the ban was implemented, without sufficient consultation especially for the farmers,” EAFF Group CEO Ste-phen Muchiri said.

He noted that inconsistencies and un-predictability of government policies are affecting the sector and “chasing away” investors from the region.

Muchiri further said trade restrictions are against the East African Community (EAC) treaty, with Tanzania leading the lot on bans that date back to the 1960’s, ac-cording to the federation.

Uganda is the only key regional market that has no history of banning imports from its neighbours.

“Uganda has never put a ban on any-thing because we look towards a liberal market. When we had the ban by Ken-ya, the whole country went helta skelta,” said Consolata Acayo, Commissioner, at Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF).

She said the move affected a whole chain from the farmers, transporters, traders to consumers, not only in Uganda but also in Kenya, calling for better relations among the EAC partner states.

“As a government, we want to be within the regional integration. We want to work together with other EAC member states. We are not only partners, but we are also friends, brothers and sisters and neigh-bours. We cannot do without each other. We depend on one another,” she noted.

She called on governments and the pri-vate sector to focus on value addition in the agriculture sector, noting that the re-

gion exports more of its raw materials and end up buying finished goods and costlier prices.

EAFF President who also doubles up as the President of the Pan Africa Farmers’ Organization (PAFO), Elizabeth Nsimada-la, urged governments to create a con-ducive environment for the growth of the agriculture sector, regional trade, and in-vestments.

She also urged farmers to ensure they meet the required standards for food, not only for export but also locally consumed products.

Last Sunday, Kenya’s agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said nobody had banned the importation of maize into the country, noting that the hiccup was due to the high levels of aflatoxin in maize com-ing from the two countries.

“You cannot ban trading in East Africa, but we must ensure that standards that are already recognised in our protocols are observed,” he said.Uganda exports at least 90 per cent of its maize to Kenya with a cumulative average of 330,620 tonnes.

Between January 2020 and January 2021, Uganda’s maize exports stood at 351,420 tonnes with a monthly average of 50,203 tonnes.

Uganda remains Kenya’s biggest trading partner in the region, accounting for 28.6 per cent of her total exports to Africa.The total export value in 2019 stood at Sh64.1 billion in 2019, the Economic Sur-vey 2020 shows, with imports from Ugan-da totaling Sh38.5 billion.

Kenya’s key imports from Uganda include milk and cream, tobacco, cane, electrical energy, and plywood among others.

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Regional News

Locust plague hits East Africa …the pesticide solution may have

dire consequences.By TRISTAN MCCONNELL

swarm of locusts is awe inspiring and terrible. It begins as a dark smudge on the hori-zon, then a gathering darkness. A rustle becomes a clatter that crescendos as tens of millions of voracious, finger-sized, bright yellow insects descend on the land.

Since late 2019, vast clouds of locusts have shrouded the Horn of Africa, de-vouring crops and pastureland—and trig-gering an operation of staggering propor-tions to track and kill them.

So far, a ground and air spraying cam-paign over eight East African countries, coordinated by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has staved off the worst—the very real pros-pect that the locusts would destroy the food supply for millions of people. Last year, the operation protected enough pas-tureland and food stocks, by the FAO’s calculations, to feed 28 million people in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen for an entire year.

But progress comes with yet-unknown consequences to the landscape, and re-sponders have sought to find the elusive balance between eradicating the invad-ing pests without destroying foliage and harming insects, wildlife, and humans. Northern Kenya is renowned worldwide for its bee diversity, and farmers and con-servationists worry that bees are becom-ing casualties.

So far, 506,000 gallons (2.3 million li-ters) of chemical pesticides have been sprayed over 4.7 million acres (1.9 million hectares) at a cost the FAO says is $195 million. The spraying is expected to con-tinue this year.

Assessments of possible environmental damage are incomplete at best, though

the effects of pesticides have been well documented for decades in other set-tings. Broad spectrum pesticides are not only very effective at killing locusts, they also kill bees and other insects. They leach into water systems and can dam-age human health.

“Of course, there is collateral damage,” says Dino Martins, an entomologist and executive director of the Mpala Research Center in Kenya. “All these chemicals are designed to kill insects and they do so in very large numbers.”

Kenya had not suffered a major locust in-vasion in 70 years. When the first swarms arrived in 2019, the country was woefully unprepared for what had been, quite rea-sonably, regarded as a remote threat.

“They had no equipment, no expertise, no pesticides, no aircraft, no knowledge,” says Keith Cressman, the FAO’s senior lo-cust forecaster.

The swarms began forming in 2018 af-ter cyclones dumped heavy rain on the inhospitable deserts of Arabia, allowing locusts to breed unseen in the wet sands. Strong winds in 2019 blew the growing swarms into Yemen’s inaccessible con-flict zones, then across the Red Sea into Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

In the early stages of the locust control effort Kenya threw everything it had at the problem. “It was a panic reaction,” says James Everts, a Dutch ecotoxicolo-gist specializing in the environmental ef-fects of pesticide use.

The spraying continued even as the COVID-19 pandemic spread and shut-tered much of the world. Donning face masks against the coronavirus, hundreds of local volunteers, as well as members

of Kenya’s National Youth Service, shoul-dered knapsack sprayers and, with mini-mal training, unloaded on the locusts with whatever pesticides happened to be in stock. They sprayed tens of thousands of liters of deltamethrin, as well as hundreds of liters of fipronil, chlorpyrifos, and other insecticides, many of which are banned in Europe and parts of the United States.

In one documented case in the northern region of Samburu, a ground control team sprayed 34 times the recommended dose of pesticide on a patch of ground, killing bees and beetles while spilling pesticide on themselves and crops.

“In the beginning it was an emergency,” says Thecla Mutia, who leads an FAO team monitoring the environmental ef-fects of locust-control efforts in Kenya. “The whole idea was to manage this as fast as possible to ensure food security.”

Designed to kill, pesticides are toxic by definition, but they are also blunt weapons. Three of the four chemicals recommend-ed by the FAO and authorized by regional governments—chlorpyrifos, fenitrothion, and malathion—are broad-spectrum or-ganophosphates, widely used pesticides sometimes referred to as “junior-strength nerve agents” because of their kinship to Sarin gas. The other, deltamethrin, is a synthetic pyrethroid, which is especially toxic to bees and fish, though much less so to mammals.

The FAO’s Pesticides Referee Group, which vets pesticides for use in locust control, lists all four chemicals as high risk to bees, low or medium risk to birds, and medium or high risk to locusts’ natu-ral enemies and soil insects, such as ants and termites.

The European Union banned chlorpyri-

AHeavy use of a broad-spectrum pesticide seems to have slowed the desert locust invasion. What the repercussions of that approach are isn’t yet clear.


fos early last year, and in the U.S. state bans have been enforced in New York, California, and Hawaii. Fenitrothion, too, is banned in Europe, but permitted in the U.S. and in Australia, where the govern-ment deploys it as a central weapon in the fight against locusts.

“We are not hiding what conventional pesticides are,” says Cyril Ferrand, FAO resilience team leader in Nairobi, who points out that doing nothing was not an option in the face of the rapidly expand-ing swarms. “We want to lower the pop-ulation of desert locusts in a way that is responsible.”

Non-toxic biological alternatives that kill locusts, but do no other harm, have been available for decades. Yet chemical pes-ticides remain the weapon of choice, ac-counting for 90 percent of the spraying in the current East Africa campaign.

Biopesticide development began in the late 1980s after the end of a years-long locust plague that stretched from North Africa to India.

“When we saw the figures of the millions of liters of pesticide being sprayed, even the donor community was horrified,” re-calls Christiaan Kooyman, a Dutch scien-tist who developed the biopesticide using a fungus, Metarhizium acridum, that at-tacks locusts. “And they asked the scien-tists, ‘Is there nothing else we can do?’”

Metarhizium, which has been on the mar-ket since 1998, is recommended by the FAO as the “most appropriate control option” for locusts, yet is rarely used. It is slow acting with a low “knockdown” rate—meaning it kills over days rather than hours. It is expensive and tricky to apply. And it is most effective against im-mature “hoppers,” rather than the adult swarms that are the greater threat.

Its best feature—that it kills only locusts—also makes it a less profitable product. Companies have little incentive to man-ufacture metarhizium and go through the costly bureaucratic process of registering it in a country until it is needed—and by then it is too late.

“Locusts aren’t around very much, and manufacturers are not keen on produc-ing something that doesn’t get used,” says Graham Matthews, a British scientist and the founding chair of the Pesticides Referee Group. When the swarms arrive, “you don’t want to wait for production, you want it off-the-shelf,” he adds.

Instead, governments reach for the broad-spectrum toxic chemicals mass-produced by large agrochemical

companies. What makes widespread spraying of chemical pesticides especial-ly worrisome to farmers, herders, scien-tists, and conservationists in Kenya is that so little is known about what, if any, harm the pesticides have done. A U.S. govern-ment environmental assessment of the regional locust operation warned of the “potential for significant adverse impacts on environment and human health,” and a review by the World Bank found the en-vironmental risk to be “substantial.”

Yet more than a year into the control cam-paign, the FAO’s assessment of the envi-ronmental impact of the spraying has not been made public.

“The excessive use of pesticides is of course detrimental to biodiversity, but it has not really been quantified as to what the level of impact is,” says Sunday Ekesi, an entomologist and director of research and partnerships at the International Cen-ter of Insect Physiology and Ecology (IC-IPE) in Nairobi, part of a government task force set up to tackle the desert locust invasion.

“Our key concern is the impact it has on the pollinators,” says Anne Maina, of the Biodiversity and Biosafety Associ-ation of Kenya. The farmers she works with attribute reduced honey and mango harvests to the disappearance of bees. Martins shares these concerns, but says the lack of monitoring information means it is impossible to know what’s really go-ing on.

“Northern Kenya and the greater Horn of Africa is one of the world’s hotspots of bee diversity, with thousands of species, most of which we know absolutely noth-ing about,” he says. “We need to develop tools that allow us to both control locusts and protect the fragile biodiversity of the region’s drylands.”

The FAO’s 2003 guidelines on safety and environmental precautions acknowledge that aerial spraying may have less impact on human health than ground spraying, but often creates “more environmental concerns” because it risks contaminating ecologically sensitive areas. Aerial spray-ing increases the potential for “uncon-

trolled drift,” whereby chemicals—much like the locusts themselves—are blown off course by the wind.

Mutia, the FAO’s team leader for en-vironmental monitoring, insists that ground-spraying teams have become better trained and local communities are better informed about the spraying and the risks to themselves and their live-stock. Kenya’s overall locust operation today has improved since the early weeks of the invasion.

“Done right, the environmental impact is very low,” says Cressman.

Still, Mutia’s environment and health monitoring report, finished last Septem-ber, has yet to be made public. And there is confusion over why. The FAO says the report is for Kenya’s agriculture ministry to release, but a ministry spokeswoman says the FAO has yet to deliver it.

In an interview, Mutia says she found “no cause for alarm,” in her review of the spraying.

However, a copy of the report obtained by National Geographic paints a more detailed and problematic picture, with ev-idence of heavy overdosing at the Sam-buru site and widespread lack of commu-nication with residents in sprayed areas.

In four of the 13 sites inspected, there was no sign of locust deaths at all, sug-gesting either that the spraying had been ineffective or that the monitoring teams weren’t in the right locations. The report says they were repeatedly given inade-quate location information and lacked the helicopters and other vehicles required to quickly reach more remote sites.

“Our main concern has been the focus on control of the locusts without a parallel monitoring system of the undesired ef-fects,” says Raphael Wahome, an animal scientist at the University of Nairobi.

He says the FAO’s information should be made available to researchers and others: “Your guess is as good as mine as to what is happening wherever [the pesticides] have been used.”


Smallholder farming households gets livestock training in Rwanda wanda’s agriculture ministry and international development organisation - Heifer have part-nered to invest over $10 million USD in livestock and training for 23,400 small-holder farming households.

n Rwanda, one fifth of the population is food insecure, and the With an average income per household pegged at approx-imately $3.11 per day in the country’s 15 districts in Northern, Southern and West-ern, the Partnership for Resilient and In-clusive Small Livestock Markets (PRISM) will be initiated there.

Through the partnership, Heifer Interna-tional aims to support farmers to reach a living income - the amount of money needed to live a dignified life - of $6.08 per household per day.

PRISM will focus on prioritizing three groups: women heads of households, malnourished children and young ado-lescent girls, in order to sustainably im-prove the livelihoods of the most vulner-able populations. Women will represent at least 50 percent and youth at least 30 percent of those engaged by PRISM and will have opportunities to access finance through the project.

“Heifer International has supported com-munities across Rwanda for more than 20 years to build sustainable food and farm-

ing businesses, and reduce hunger and poverty,” said Adesuwa Ifedi, Senior Vice President of Africa Programs for Heifer In-ternational.

“Through our training model, farmers will develop the financial, farming and leader-ship skills they need to care for their ani-mals and sharpen their business acumen.

This will help them improve farm produc-tion and productivity, as well as develop stronger connections to formal markets, building sustainable agribusinesses and increasing profits.”

“We look forward to working closely with Heifer Rwanda to deliver this program that will positively impact farmers and their families,” said Dr. Gérardine Mukeshima-na, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Re-sources of Rwanda.

“Heifer International has a long history of working with farmers in Rwanda to build resilient rural communities and support farming families to live productive, pros-perous lives.”

Heifer International’s Values Based Holis-tic Community Development model sup-ports communities to build their capacity for development, working with farmers to increase their knowledge and resilience, while reducing vulnerability to climate change and economic shocks. PRISM

will include:

Formation of self-help groups of 20-30 members to provide capacity building training and mentorship.

Training and capacity for poultry, swine, goat and sheep farmers to develop shared values, mobilize and plan togetherAgribusiness and income generation training to develop hard and soft skills, including nutrition, gender and leader-ship modules for men and women, values based financial literacy and environmen-tal management.

Technical training prior to livestock place-ment on poultry, swine, goat and sheep breeding, husbandry and feeding.

Training and equipment for Community Agrovet Entrepreneurs (CAVEs) to sup-port animal wellbeing across all value chains, including basic animal care, vac-cines and simple surgeries.

In addition to providing training to 23,400 farmers on sustainable community devel-opment and livestock production, PRISM will strengthen private sector service provision. It will support the formation of 1,170 farmer groups and establish a net-work of 117 community facilitators, along with veterinary and extension services provided by 31 private veterinary entre-preneurs.

R

Regional News

Uganda’s coffee exports defy COVID-19 disruptions offee exports have defied COVID-19 market disruptions for a straight second month recording growth in value and volume. According to data from Uganda Coffee Development Authority, coffee exports between March 2020 and February 2021 grossed at 5.56 million bags worth $511.21m, from 4.74 million bags worth $459.47m the previous year.

This represented a 17 per cent and 11 per cent increase in quantity and value, respectively. In February, Uganda exported 563,763 60-kilogramme bags of coffee worth $50.55m.

Agriculture Minister Vincent Ssempijja, said the recent growth in coffee exports was due to increased production in coffee growing regions, and streamlining of transport and logistics from farms to the market, amid travel restrictions.

During the period, he said, many exporters had decided to keep their stock at warehouses until the market situation changed.“For example, during the lockdown, moving coffee from the farms to the port was difficult. What explains the constant rise these few months is that we have addressed the issue of logis-tics, delays and bureaucracy at the Mombasa port,” he said.

Since April last year, Uganda started posting an increase in the number of coffee bags being exported each month following a partial lifting of lockdown measures in countries that buy Ugan-da’s coffee.

On paper, Uganda has an ambitious target of exporting 20 mil-lion bags of coffee by 2022, which would put the country in a position to compete with large coffee powerhouses such as Ethi-opia, Vietnam and Brazil.

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Insight

COVID-19 accelerate digital tech use in agriculture Dr. MAX MENDEZ-PARRA* OVID-19 crisis has generated sudden and significant changes in the way people work, pro-duce, consume, trade and live.

There has been the widespread turn to working from home (especially for typical white-collar activities), and the deepening reliance on e-commerce for groceries and other daily goods, which has affected no-toriously traditional retail.

However, with the exception of the tem-porary impact of the pandemic on travel and other leisure activities, activities like the use of e-commerce and working from home are not new to the world and to the people in East Africa.

The technologies that have facilitated these changes have been available and were in use before the crisis. Working from home had been increasing in creative in-dustries and other services. E-commerce companies such as Amazon, eBay and Jumia were giant corporations even be-fore the pandemic. The use of electronic means of payment has been spearhead in many regions, notably in East Africa.

What has changed has been the speed at which these changes have lately oc-

curred. Different analysis has shown that COVID-19 has accelerated e-commerce growth by 4 to 6 years.

Technology, even before the pandemic, was transforming the agriculture sector in East Africa. Biotechnology, robotics and smart warehousing have increasing-ly been employed to produce and com-mercialise products there. For example, remote sensing using drones is used in Tanzania to monitor the state of crops such as cassava, beans and maize.

Of the technologies increasingly adopted by East African farmers, digital agriculture platforms (apps) are becoming a critical means to engage in e-commerce. Of the firms providing agtech solutions in the region, 75% were providing apps. Apps offer farmers a wide range of services, including obtaining market information, finding buyers, purchasing materials used in production and obtaining credit, among many others.

In Uganda, more than a million farmers were using apps before the crisis, and they particularly valued the ability to ac-cess buyers, buy necessary materials and obtain advisory services and real-time information on prices and weather. Apps

have helped to enhance productivity by increasing the access of critical inputs and services and promote diversification, especially into new markets. However, a gendered digital divide still exists with the use of these platforms, in terms of access to the internet and productivity-enhanc-ing benefits.

It should come as no surprise that the use of these type of technologies in agricul-ture has accelerated during the pandem-ic. This acceleration was in part fuelled by government requirements related to the pandemic and crisis management (e.g. mobile payments to farmers). But fun-damentally, apps are an existing cost-ef-fective solution to remain in business, procure materials and commercialise products in the context of stay-at-home orders. Without such platforms, it would have been impossible to continue to do business or comply with government health directives.

Cost, complexity and capabilities explain why apps have become a norm rather than an exception during the pandemic. Digital platforms are a low cost and low complexity solution. The capabilities re-quired for their operation are relatively low, and the urgency generated by the

C


crisis has removed any fears or precon-ceptions that farmers may have in using them. However, the ability of farmers to use such apps varies considerably as many of the production, exchange, and trading and sharing platforms require high technical abilities, given their larger scope compared with ag-platform business models.

The impact of these technologies goes further than just the agriculture sector, as digital platforms are also transforming the way the retailing of food is done in East Africa. Normally bursting street markets in Kampala have been seriously disrupted due to stay-at-home orders. The adoption and increasing use of e-commerce plat-forms (such as E-voucher, MUIIS, KOPGT and EzyAgric) has facilitated people’s ac-cess to essential groceries and vendors (with a majority women), and business has continued during the crisis.

Perspectives

Digital platforms and other technologies will be a distinctive feature of agricul-ture value chains moving forward. The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the digital transformation of agriculture and economies across the world. The sudden

acceleration of these changes may be generating serious disruption, but the di-rection of these changes was known well before. Despite this, digital platforms are critical in in increasing productivity and boosting the participation of women andMoreover, the crisis has made urgent the adoption of certain policies and actions to facilitate and manage the digital transfor-mation process. In the case of Uganda, for example, the support provided by the government for the development and op-eration of digital platforms and to farmers to use them has been minimal. Although the crisis may have constituted a saviour for many of these initiatives, the policy gaps remain.

In addition, 98 percent of all digital plat-forms in East Africa exist only within na-tional boundaries. This points to the need to understand the various regional policy gaps that prevent the proliferation of apps regionally. Creating more comprehensive ag-e-commerce regulations, with com-plementary actions on regional ICT skill-ing, could boost the necessary regional e-commerce.

Traditional constraints such as trade bar-riers have been hampering the develop-ment of e-commerce and limiting the

benefits derived from digital platforms, including during the COVID crisis. Longer customs processing times cause delays, or there is the impossibility of bringing products from other regional partners. But there are also new challenges such as low digital trust and lack of consumer protections.

Finally, but not less important, digital platforms before the crisis contributed to the economic empowerment of women in East Africa and in Uganda in particu-lar. Such platforms allow more time and resources to be spent on women’s edu-cation and healthcare, women can report abuse more easily and they can increase their economic autonomy. Accelerating the adoption of digital platforms may contribute to accelerating female eco-nomic empowerment. In the context of the pain generated by the crisis, this is an extremely welcome outcome, but still insufficient. Addressing the digital gender divide requires more targeted investment into apps that involve women in the de-cision-making process, or that are wom-en-centric from the start.

*Dr. Max Mendez-Parra is Principal In-vestigator at the Overseas Development Institute

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International News

SA raise concerns on BRICS agriculture tariffs and non- tariffs

griculture bodies in South Africa - Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), Agri SA, the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (Afasa), the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) and the Na-tional African Farmers’ Union (Nafu) have met with the Depart-ment of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) to discuss Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) agricultural trade matters.

The development comes on the backdrop of South Africa re-maining a small player in the Brics bloc, with fellow BRICS coun-tries buying less than 10 percent of South Africa’s exports of $10-billion. And the key hindrance has largely been both tariff and non-tariff barriers.

The Brics Agribusiness Working Group advocates for preferential market access, which will address these challenges.

Stakeholders expressed interest in increased market access in

China and India for a range of products, including beef, horticul-tural products and wine.

The meeting of the BRICS Agribusiness Working Group was held in the spirit of supporting South Africa’s growth initiatives.

“We call on policymakers to continue working with private sector players in prioritising the expansion of agricultural export mar-kets, specifically engagement with India and China.

“These countries do not only comprise of growing populations but also growing income and change in consumer preference, which bodes well for the products South Africa produces for ex-port,” says BRICS Agribusiness Working Group chairperson and Agbiz CEO Dr. John Purchase.

South Africa views agriculture as one of the important sectors in its Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.

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International News

Youth urged to tap into Africa’s agriculture potential

an-African leaders have challenged Africa to produce enough food to feed her popula-tion and beyond, coupled with develop-ment of entire agriculture value chain.

The call was made at the Pan-African Movement (PAM) Youth Commission’s Fourth Africa Expects Youth Series webi-nar that was held under the theme ‘Youth as Key Drivers to Sustainable Food Se-curity.’

According to data from the Food and Ag-riculture Organization of the United Na-tions (UNFAO), about 250 million Africans are hungry, which is almost 20 percent of its 1.2 billion people.

Brian Kagoro, Founder and Executive Di-rector of UHAI Africa Group, a Pan African Governance, Leadership and Develop-ment consulting firm said that there is a huge market within Africa that is yet to be exploited, indicating that the Africa Con-tinental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) should be a mechanism to enable and ease the intra-Africa trade bottlenecks.

Kagoro said that the difficulties in trad-ing in Africa are because of the colonial model, arguing that Africa was activated and motivated never to look to itself for self-reliance and relevance.

“AfCFTA must really push us towards a mindset where we build regional value chains; build research and development; invest in locally, nationally and regionally relevant technology for agricultural trans-formation (i.e. affordable, user friendly and accessible and durable),” he said.

“We need to improve market intelligence information and standards; in some coun-

tries, the danger is posed by middlemen that exploit primary producers; infrastruc-ture, transportation, storage and logis-tics are as key as access to risk capital/finance and mentorship and support,” he said.

Kagoro said that African businesspeople have been thinking that they cannot be successful without selling to Europe.However, he pointed out that there are Africans such as Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote who became billionaires thanks to selling to Africa.

“This, he said, is a wake-up call in our thinking about the value of Africa in the agricultural value chain and also our con-sumption,” he said, encouraging intra-Af-rican trade and youth participation in de-veloping agricultural value chain.

Referring to the Covid-19 pandemic that disrupted global supply chains, he said that Africa should strengthen local food production and trade.

“If we have a third and a fourth wave, and Europe and China shut down [a year or year and half of shutdown], and we were not able to do any export, will you as a business survive? But most importantly, will you not be starving?” he challenged Africans.

Regis Umugiraneza, founder of Carl Group – a company engaged in nutritious sweet potato processing for products such as bread – said that Africa’s food in-dustry can compete on the global stage if the continent joins force.

He said that Rwanda committed to mak-ing the youth the driver of agriculture de-velopment and food security by estab-

lishing and supporting a Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF) in 2016, which currently has more than 12,000 members.

Now, he said, the Government is estab-lishing the manufacturing facility to help the industry recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The requirements to get funding from such initiative include having $10 million for other manufacturers compared to only $100,000 for agro-processors. This shows how the Government of Rwanda is committed to promote and also to em-phasize food security by reducing imports by increasing local production, but also increasing exports,” he said.

Quoting AfDB President Akinwumi Adesi-na, Michael Shyaka Nyarwaya, the Com-missioner for Youth at Pan-African Move-ment Rwanda Chapter said that the future billionaires of Africa will not be coming from the oil and gas sector, but from the agriculture, adding that food is critical and that is what Africa has a comparative ad-vantage in.

Nyarwaya said that the Pan-African Movement Rwandan Chapter decided to choose the topic “Youth as Key Drivers to Sustainable Food Security” just be-cause they know that “if we don’t have enough food in Africa, we will be having a big problem,” calling for efforts to ensure food security on the continent.

“We need an education system that en-sures that we have young people who are agriculture professionals because we are heading to technology-led agriculture,” he said.

P


Technology

Start-up spreads wings in digitization of smallholder farmlands

mart AgrIoT is an Agritech company focussed on the digitization of smallholder farm-lands in Africa. The South African-based start-up recently came second place in the concluded African Space Tech Chal-lenge, winning SecureWatch Premium, 2GB valid for three months to the value of $5,000.

Space in Africa had a chat with JABU-LANI MADLALA, the chief operations officer. He shared a few insights into the company’s milestones and ambitions.

In a nutshell, when was the compa-ny established, and what does Smart AgrIoT do?

We were established in 2019. The compa-ny was founded based on the problems that we have in Africa Agriculture. Basi-cally, what we do is create smart farms, more so for small farmers. The first step for farmers to be included is to digitize their farms. Then any technology can be applied to manage their farms either remotely or through other ways. Unfor-tunately, our continent’s problem is that the technology is too expensive for the 50 million smallholder farmers. So when we created SmartAgrIoT, we had the ob-jective not just to digitize but manage the farms. In most cases, our farmers’ big-gest asset is land.

They lack access to buyers, locally and internationally. Buyers bring additional challenges to these farmers by laying out minimum specifications for various crops. For example, a buyer might say they need potatoes or vegetables grown at a certain soil moisture level. All a farmer knows is that they put the seeds on the farm, and in a certain amount of time, there should be a harvest. As a result, small farmers never become commercial. To move them from point A to B, we provide the technology, bringing in agronomists, veterinary ser-vices, and all they have to do is subscribe to the service on a PAYGO basis, usually, abut USD 30 – 40 a month.

Your farming-as-a-service platform provides design, capture fields, and analyze the soil, select crops and plan

yields in addition to monitoring tem-perature, weather, humidity, and dis-eases. What technologies do you use?

We mainly space technology to view and monitor farms from any location. These include livestock, aquaculture, and crops. We use three small satellites. We are in a relationship with a European-based up-stream provider where we use some of their satellites. We hope that as we go for-ward, there will be African satellites dedi-cated to agriculture. One satellite focuss-es on data collections, crops, land (soil, moisture), the other satellite focusses on livestock and will include information on animal health and growth. The other sat-ellite focuses on marine life and informs on the location of the aquaculture and the volume. We have partnered with other technology providers to enable enterprise resource planning management.

How do you select farmers?

We have done a real pilot selection of nine farmer groups. Our most recent engage-ment is an 80 acre which we will be man-aging for a farmers’ group.

What is the current market traction?

The traction is improving. What we have done since 2019 and over 2020 is work on creating relationships. We have been talking to farmers’ associations, agro-pro-cessors who would ideally purchase the produce, process, package, and sell it to the market. We have a relationship

with a few of them. We currently have 10 farmers’ groups. We were affected by the pandemic. This year, we are hoping to on-board about 500 farmers, 20,000 within three years, and 100,000 within five years.

Tell me how you deploy your extension officers is it on a per farm basis?

To get the best people on the team, we hire extension officers who have worked for the government. They may be re-signed and still looking for a new job. The only condition we apply is that they must be from the local area because we do not want extension officers staying in hotels. They don’t have to have BSc qualifica-tions as we have agronomists. However, they have to be good in conducting the field work, looking at the farm conditions and taking photos that can be uploaded to our systems and analyzed. They also need to have relationships with the farm owners. We deploy field officers per 15 farms, which is far better than the nation-al average of 1 extension officer per 400 farms.

You have a financing program for farm-ers, your website mentions low-inter-est loan products, and crop insurance. Have you been able to provide this?

For this product, we are going to be part-nering with two main insurance firms in Cape Town. We see the companies com-ing onboard to cater to this need, where associated risk is analyzed and quantified through satellite imagery analysis.

S

Smart AgrIoT is an Agritech company focussed on the digitization of smallholder farmlands in Africa. The South African-based start-up recently came second place in the concluded African Space Tech Challenge.


Feature

Save energy and irrigate more profitably with AGRICO’s GPS based Web ControlA grico recently introduced a new GPS controller, with which pivots can be controlled on Agrico’s well-known internet application. By controlling pumps according to the specific need of the pivots, heaps of energy are saved.

DEVICES ON THE INTERNET

Advanced Rain Pivot Control and Pump Control connect irrigation devices to the Internet on Agrico’s Rain interface. The whole system is managed easily and accurately.

Agrico Pivot with internet control. On the cell phone screen one can see how pumps and pivots are controlled on the same application.

This screen grab illustrates the functionality of the system, making it easy to operate large irrigation systems with various pivot points, pumps, dam levels, valves, irrigation blocks etc. on a single platform.


THE VALUE OF PRESSURE CON-TROL WITH AGRICO’S GPS MODULE

Here is a real example of a pivot, with a large height difference between the highest and lowest points:

The following graph shows how the Agrico system accurately controls the pressure, according to the need of the pivot. The spray package requires a minimum pressure of 100kPa at the end of the machine for correct, uniform irri-gation.

Traditionally, the irrigation system is then designed with a constant inlet pressure to continuously meet the max-imum pressure requirement (at the high-est point); about 450kPa in this case. However, the pressure at the centre can be varied between about 240kPa and 450kPa due to the topography to exact-ly meet the pressure requirements and thus save energy.

NEW GPS MODULE

AGRICO’s new GPS can be installed on any electrical pivot. The position of the last tower is determined accurately. The pressure can be monitored at the end of the pivot point and with AGRICO Pump Control and a VFD (variable frequency drive) the pressure can be controlled automatically and accurately.

See the green cylindrical Agrico control unit, with its GPS antenna on the last tower of another make pivot.

Since the pressure is controlled not to fall below the threshold values and the spray package is equipped with pres-sure regulators, the volume of water ap-plied is constant, despite the slope.

Power (kW) is the product of pressure (kPa) and flow (l/s). The power required for the pump (s) during irrigation is therefore directly proportional to the pressure applied.

The total energy for one revolution of the pivot is equivalent to the area under the pressure curve. The following graph shows how much energy is required for one revolution with AGRICO’s automat-ic pressure control, versus the energy that would be required if no control is applied. The energy saving with Agrico’s GPS pressure control, for this real case is more than 28%.

This is a Google image with 2 m contours. The graph shows the height profile on the circumference. The total height difference is 21 m and the maximum height is 13 m higher than the average height. The white section on the graph represents, potential energy savings that can be achieved with pressure control.

The graph shows how the Agrico control system automatically responds by varying the inlet pressure at the centre (the solid red line) to continuously maintain the re-quired pressure at the end of the machine (the blue dotted line). The actual end pressure is also indicated (solid blue line)

Shows the energy required with pressure control (in green) and the 28% energy saving (in red), compared to when no control would be applied.

AGRICO Web Control offers the best technology:

• Dynamic System Pressure - With this integrated solution, pressure can be op-timized automatically, with huge energy savings.• Positioning - Better accuracy by means of optional GPS.• Security - Web Control utilizes the latest user and device authentication to increase security. User rights can be granted individually. Complete record of all user actions is kept for audit purpos-es.• Increases irrigation efficiency through accurate control.• Facilitate the operation and manage-ment of the irrigation system.• Reduce energy consumption and in-crease profitability.• 24 Months free internet control sub-scription with each new controller. SMS communication is optionally available.• Updates with the latest software ver-sions, via the internet.• The product is supported by a 24/7 technical helpline.


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Zoetis’ A.L.P.H.A. Initiative Improving Diversity and Livestock Health in Sub-Saharan Africa ver half the population of sub- Saharan Africa relies on livestock, as it provides nearly half of the total family income. However, these com-munities see exceptionally high incidences of livestock disease and have historically faced limited access to veterinary services.

The African Livestock Productivity and Health Advancement (A.L.P.H.A.) initiative from Zoetis aims to help change that sit-uation and improve the health of livestock – a critical asset for rural communities – to achieve food security for these vulnerable regions.

The A.L.P.H.A. initiative – launched in Ugan-da and Nigeria in 2017 and Ethiopia and Tanzania in 2018 – has developed solutions to implement disease diagnostic infrastruc-ture and increase the availability of veteri-nary medicines and services, across com-munities.

Diversity is difficult, but results are promising

Female involvement and participation in diagnostics and animal health training is a crucial focus of the A.L.P.H.A. initiative as female livestock farmers are very active in the farming of poultry and small ruminants. A.L.P.H.A. has therefore worked hard to en-sure a gender balance and the inclusion of women in all training. The participation rate from women is currently 40%.

Barriers still exist though. According to the World Bank gender overview (2016), in Ni-geria, inequality between the sexes has put women at a great disadvantage. They often face insurmountable barriers to their participation in the economic activities that sustain their livelihoods. This situation has been made worse during the COVID-19 pandemic when a greater amount of train-ing is being delivered digitally. Cost issues, or lack of access to internet connectivity in more remote areas, have caused a drop in female participation.

Despite these setbacks, Zoetis’ A.L.P.H.A. initiative continues to show promising re-sults and is committed to working towards equal gender participation in its educational programs by 2023. Together with increased availability of medicines and the develop-ment of veterinary infrastructure, Zoetis ul-timately aims to transform livestock health and livelihoods for their owners.

Identifying veterinarian’s training needs

As well as working directly with livestock farmers, the A.L.P.H.A. initiative aims to sup-port the veterinary sector in its animal health work. In collaboration with the University of Surrey in the UK, the A.L.P.H.A. initiative has conducted more than 20 studies to identify the educational needs of veterinary profes-sionals in sub-Saharan Africa, with the goal of addressing existing training gaps through customized solutions.

The A.L.P.H.A. team adopted a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach, a strategy that has en-

abled the program to engage an estimated 500,000 local stakeholders to date, pro-viding trainees with tools and education around animal nutrition, disease detection and other animal health issues.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandem-ic, which limited physical interactions, A.L.P.H.A. trainers were quick to adapt their traditional training methods into accessi-ble online courses and webinars. Many of A.L.P.H.A.’s customers have been able to maintain learning continuity, participating in training, including a recent Instagram live broadcast on the responsible use of antibi-otics, using their smart phones.

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