COVID-19 results in African agricultural innovation

In a paper printed in Advances in Food Security and Sustainability, researchers discovered that farmers in East Africa (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) had been in a position to higher adapt to the affect of COVID-19 than these within the Southern African international locations of Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. 

These regional differences, the researchers stated, may largely be defined by the distinction in arrival occasions of lock-down measures, entry and adoption of know-how and cultural variations in adapting to the brand new state of affairs.

Timing of the pandemic

Eileen Bogweh Nchanji, a gender specialist on the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and a co-author of the paper, stated that when COVID-19 lockdowns began in southern Africa, it occurred proper in the course of the harvest of legumes like beans, a key crop for meals safety and livelihoods.

“If you had to go out to sell your crops, nobody wanted to do the transport and a lot of people lost their crops,” she stated, including that East Africa was extra lucky in that lockdowns hit at a extra advantageous a part of the crop cycle, and that family coming back from the cities had been obtainable as labor.

Lutomia Kweyu, a researcher on the Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization in  Nairobi, Kenya, and one other co-author of the paper, stated that earlier than the pandemic, the Sub-saharan meals programs had been very fragile and once more, the timing was a giant issue.

“We were dependent on imports and inputs, mostly from Asia and Europe… then the pandemic struck Asia, a big source of fertilizer and animal feed,” he stated, including that this led to giant disruptions within the provide chains of these farming inputs. 

Changes in farmer habits

Kweyu defined that significantly in East African international locations like Kenya, there was a big improve within the plot dimension of city farms.

“Urban Farmers wanted to have access to healthy and safe food, so they increased plot sizes in the urban areas, to increase the production,” he stated.

“Meat was so expensive, many people began to grow and consume legumes,” he stated, “It was a blend of those who had gardens before and others who hadn’t farmed before but were now stuck at home and wanted to reduce their trips to the markets and their overall food budget.”

Kweyu stated extra farmers in East Africa had been in a position to entry authorities assist, compared to southern African international locations and provide chains had been extra sure.

“The huge difference was the ability of the east Africans to process their raw materials into value-added products,” he stated, “In Kenya particularly, the milk processing capacity is higher, the milk trucks were declared essential services and, in the dairy-producing regions, processing of milk into butter and yogurt increased substantially at the co-op level.”

As the pandemic wore on, farmers in japanese and southern Africa additionally discovered feed and fertilizer options nearer to house.

Mobile cellphone apps to the rescue

One of the extra stunning findings from the pandemic, stated Nchanji (who’s initially from Cameroon), was the speedy adoption of communication apps to facilitate new connections between farmers and patrons.

According to Nchanji, basically, the challenges posed by lockdowns and provide chain disruption, led to farmers reassessing their actions.

“They couldn’t do anything for the season, but then they realized they had more time on the farm, so they started think about what else they could grow and how to sell more efficiently,” she stated, including that digital platforms had been in a position to convey collectively farmers and aggregators (merchants who put collectively huge a number of produce on the market).

“In Kenya, for example, someone will now go on to a WhatsApp group and say, I have this quantity of beans to sell, in this district and then an aggregator or wholesale buyer will be able to get in contact with them directly instead of having to make stops at various farms,” Nchanji stated.

Nchanji stated nevertheless that the costs had been typically decrease than the outdated market worth, as biosecurity measures and shortage meant climbing transport prices.

“The WhatsApp group for the bean farmers actually got so big, we’ve had to move to Telegram,” she stated.

Provided by
The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture