Do innovative digital solutions improve the performance, competitiveness and profitability of farmer-oriented agribusinesses in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries? Thirty practitioners attending a recent CTA workshop zoomed in on real cases to test this question, assessing what works, how and why and drawing out insights and lessons – actionable knowledge – for wider application. Workshop participants identified five intersecting drivers that explain why farmer-oriented agribusinesses invest in digitalisation: to reduce risk, raise productivity, increase efficiency, improve decisions, and enhance access to markets. Participants argued that digital interventions all serve one or more of these, depending on specific local needs and situations. A critical factor underpinning success or failure in these areas is the sustainability of the business models used to deliver value and services.

Digital as well as other technical and institutional innovations underpin the success of agriculture in developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). Such innovations are encouraging a new generation of young ‘agripreneurs’ to tackle agri-food challenges, explore ways to build resilience to climate change, and improve the incomes and livelihoods of people in agriculture. This issue of ICT Update brings together selected experiences of agricultural practitioners working close to the ‘front line’, bringing innovation and next-generation ideas to agriculture for development projects, and helping them reach, benefit and empower smallholder producers, leading to sustainable change.

The recent CTA workshop on ‘catalysing actionable knowledge to enhance next-generation ACP agribusiness through digitalisation’ identified five intersecting drivers that explain what farmer-oriented agribusinesses expect to achieve by investing in digitalisation: reduced risk, raised productivity, increased efficiency, improved decisions, and enhanced market access. Participants argued that digital interventions all serve one or more of these, depending on specific local needs and situations. A critical factor underpinning what works in all these areas is the economic sustainability of the business models used to deliver value and services.

At CTA, we leverage the power of knowledge, innovation and technology, particularly information and communication technologies (ICTs), to make a difference to the lives of rural people across Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.We have stepped up our efforts to encourage youth entrepreneurship, support climate-smart agriculture, and promote digitalisation to improve the productivity and resilience of agricultural value chains. CTA’s renowned publishing programme now has a far stronger online presence than in the past, providing ready access to much needed technical knowledge for millions of readers.

An inclusive, digitally-enabled agricultural transformation could help achieve meaningful livelihood improvements for Africa’s smallholder farmers and pastoralists. It could drive greater engagement in agriculture from women and youth and create employment opportunities along the value chain. At CTA we staked a claim on this power of digitalisation to more systematically transform agriculture early on. Digitalisation, focusing on not individual ICTs but the application of these technologies to entire value chains, is a theme that cuts across all of our work. In youth entrepreneurship, we are fostering a new breed of young ICT ‘agripreneurs’. In climate-smart agriculture multiple projects provide information that can help towards building resilience for smallholder farmers. And in women empowerment we are supporting digital platforms to drive greater inclusion for women entrepreneurs in agricultural value chains.

A critical and detailed analysis of inequalities of world trade systems.