On Monday, April 29, 2024, Inades-Formation and its partners AFDI and AVI launched the DigitOp project “Le numérique, levier pour accélérer le développement des services des organisations paysannes d’Afrique de l’Ouest” in Côte d’Ivoire. The ceremony took place at the Palm Club Hotel in the presence of the representative of the Ministry of Digital Transition and Digitization, beneficiaries, development partners, project stakeholders and journalists.
There will be 9 billion people on the planet by 2050. The challenges of feeding these people are many. It will be necessary to maintain sustainable growth in agriculture in order to produce enough food, while working on issues of inclusion, resilience and optimization of digital resources. Farmers’ organizations have a key role to play here. They already provide nearly 80% of the world’s food supply, but their potential is far from being fully exploited.
An enabling environment that facilitates their access to essential resources – finance, inputs, markets, information, technical solutions – becomes essential to strengthen their resilience and improve their production capacity.
Digital technology, with its multiple possibilities, can be a great asset for the development of the agricultural chain and food security.
Between applications, AI, remote sensing, satellite measurements, facilitating data collection and sharing, etc., digital technology is breaking down isolation, revolutionizing the management of agricultural sectors and helping to make agriculture more attractive to young people.
That’s why it’s so important for producers in Africa to get to grips with this increasingly essential tool.
This is the aim of the DigitOP project, which was launched in Côte d’Ivoire on April 29, 2024.
The DigitOP project is led by the consortium Afdi (Agriculteurs Français et Développement International) and AVI (Afrique Verte Internationale) in partnership with Inades-Formation and ROPPA (Réseau des Organisation Paysannes d’Afrique de l’Ouest) and is being implemented in Guinea, Burkina Faso and since April 2024 in Côte d’Ivoire. It is financed by the French Development Agency (AFD).
The project aims to create stronger links between POs and the local digital ecosystem, so that they can participate in innovation processes and ensure that the services offered match farmers’ needs, and contribute to appropriate policies for digitizing agricultural activities.
In his welcome address, Inades-Formation SG Sena Adessou spoke of the growing importance of the digital sector in Côte d’Ivoire. Citing the study “Le numérique vecteur d’une économie émergente” (digital as a vector for an emerging economy), which states that digital could bring Côte d’Ivoire 5.5 billion dollars by the end of 2025. The sector is expanding rapidly, with the number of Internet users rising from 9% to 34% of the population in 10 years.
Mr. Porgo Issoufou, DigitOP/Afdi project coordinator, presented the project’s main activities, which include :
- carry out a diagnostic study of digital services and players,
- build the capacity of PO managers in terms of the digital ecosystem, legislation and data protection;
- organize consultations between POs and political decision-makers on the valorization and scaling-up of ICT in ASPH (Agrosylvopastoral and halieutic) policies
- experiment with new services and improve existing ones with farmer groups
- relaunch the SIMAgri platform in Côte d’Ivoire,
There are also plans to deliver digital kits containing agricultural information applications and services, differentiated by need, with training for endogenous PO animators on these kits. Etc.
The project intends to invest in strengthening the human capacities of POs, while paying particular attention to the specific needs of women involved in agricultural sectors and to the attractiveness of agricultural professions for rural youth.
It aims to support farmers’ organizations in their role as actors and creators of content, and to strengthen their role and influence in the digital ecosystem for agriculture.
During the discussions, participants and beneficiaries invited the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Digital Transition and Digitization to work together to make digital a lever for agricultural development in Côte d’Ivoire.
Producer organization representatives also insisted on the profile of the young people and facilitators who will be trained, so that they are players in the agricultural world and in partner POs, to ensure the sustainability of the actions.
The DigitOP project will run for 30 months in Côte d’Ivoire (April 2024 to September 2026) in 20 regions of the country, with the following beneficiaries: PANAFCI (Plateforme Nationale pour l’Agriculture Familiale en Côte d’IvoireI), UIREC (Union Inter-Régionale des Coopératives), FESCOOPP-CI (Fédération nationale des Coopératives de Producteurs de Porcs de Côte d’Ivoire).
By getting involved in the digital transformation of farmers’ organizations, Côte d’Ivoire is embarking on a path of innovative and resilient rural development, where every player, whatever their level of technology, can contribute to collective prosperity.
Service Communication / Inades-Formation- Secrétariat Général
