South african digital strategy for agriculture: Investigating end to end digital technologies applicable in the agriculture value chain

Climate change and rapid population growth are major threats to food security across the world. Developing countries are more susceptible to food security threats due to a lack of innovation in food system production, packaging and distribution as well as the effects of climate change. It is estimated that population growth will rise by approximately 9 - 12.3 billion between 2030 and 2050 with Africa and Asia contributing the most to these figures. Countries that do not embrace innovation and change the ways of working in agriculture can find themselves not being able to compete in global markets as the cost of producing food using old methods will impact competitiveness and market linkages. Literature reveals that although most developed countries are looking at innovating and implement climate-friendly ways of producing food through the application of digital technologies however low adoption and due to lack of policy framework are affecting progress especially in developing countries. When compared to other industries, the agricultural sector is progressing slower in adopting Fourth Industrial Revolution practices. Cost and unclear value add of digital technology, data management, education, and skills; social issues such as increased unemployment and policy are cited as the biggest blockers to adoption. Furthermore, innovative agricultural practices such as precision agriculture and digital technologies are being applied in a silo approach rather than looking at the entire agriculture value chain to optimize it and foster collaboration. A gap analysis done on implementation of agriculture technologies in South Africa shows that there is little research done in digital agriculture and also reveals that it follows the silo approach. No study currently in South Africa has looked at the holistic approach of applying digital technologies in the value chain and how data collected can be analyzed and used to create visibility of the value chain and enhance performance and collaboration. The expected outcome of this study is the development of the digital agricultural strategy best practices for South Africa for the entire value chain that can inform and influence the policy framework. For the purposes of this study, the digital agriculture conceptual framework to be developed will be piloted on the maize value chain. This digital framework will be modelled to test different scenarios and assumption to demonstrate the value add of lack of implementing digital technologies in the agriculture value chain.