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The MADE Alliance: A Digital Revolution for Africa’s Farmers

The African Development Bank Group and Mastercard are teaming up to head up a shiny new initiative: the Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance Africa. Now, when I heard about this, I thought, “Finally! Someone’s throwing tech at Africa’s farmers like confetti at a wedding!” And let’s be honest, digital access in Africa is like trying to find Wi-Fi in the middle of a Sahara tent. As we all know, if there’s one thing farmers love more than a good rain, it’s a good signal.

The goal is to provide essential digital services to a whopping 100 million people over the next decade. And in phase one—because it’s always a two-part episode, right?—they’re dangling $300 million to get things rolling. First on the list? Integrating 3 million farmers across Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria into the digital economy with the Mastercard Community Pass. Think about it—who wouldn’t want a digital ID that gives access to more agricultural agents than you could fit in a tractor trailer?

But of course, every party needs its guests. The Alliance isn’t just about the bigwigs; it’s got more companies on board than a school bus on a field trip! We’ve got Equity Bank Group, Microsoft, Heifer International, and even the Shell Foundation—quite the diverse cast, wouldn’t you say? It’s like the Avengers of agriculture!

Making Technology Accessible

Speaking of superheroes, we spoke with the African Development Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr. Beth Dunford, who’s got her eyes set on the possibilities digitalization can bring to farmers and food systems. Her rhetoric was smoother than a politician’s campaign promise, and let me tell you, it wasn’t without a touch of flair.

She raised a solid point: Africa has 65% of the remaining uncultivated arable land on Earth. Sit with that for a moment. This isn’t just a land of opportunities; they’ve got land that could be producing more crops than a 24-hour salad bar! Agriculture accounts for nearly 60% of total employment in Africa, so if anyone can relate to the phrase “just-add-water and watch it grow,” it’s these folks. And did you know women play a massive role here? Ladies are responsible for 60 to 80% of agriculture’s workforce, yet they’re often handling what feels like a spatula instead of a shovel, struggling without sufficient resources!

Now, the challenge is real. Most of Africa’s smallholder farmers are like that friend who always borrows your lawnmower but never returns it—struggling to secure quality inputs like quality seeds or affordable financing. The MADE Alliance aims to flip this script by boosting digital access to essential services, which sounds great until you realize you still need a reliable internet connection—which, in rural areas, sometimes feels rarer than unicorn sightings!

Bridging the Digital Divide

The Community Pass aims to pluck farmers out of the digital dark ages. Yes, it’s designed to thrive in areas with terrible internet service—so, in a way, it meets farmers where they are, quite literally. But implementing these savvy solutions has its hurdles, much like trying to hop on a pogo stick after a lavish dinner. Capacity building and infrastructure investments will need to happen, or this entire digital project could end up in the agricultural trash can.

So how do we navigate this complex labyrinth? The key might just be cooperation. We need to rally agricultural cooperatives and farmer networks to get the gears turning. The problem is that many of these cooperatives are about as efficient as a dial-up connection. And let’s not even get started on digital literacy, or the lack thereof—if we don’t educate farmers on digital tech, we might as well be trying to teach a cat to fetch!

Empowering Women Farmers

Let’s talk women in agriculture. Almost half of Africa’s smallholder farmers are women, yet ironically find themselves facing more barriers than a contestant on an obstacle course reality show. Lower access to financial services, market information, and essential inputs means female farmers often produce 20-30% less than their male counterparts. Imagine if they had the same resources! A breadbasket today could be the bakery of tomorrow.

The Community Pass, as it turns out, doesn’t just play the role of a fairy godmother by offering access to services. It’s also about giving women the tools to turn agriculture into a sustainable livelihood—all while adding transparency to the mix. That’s right—investing in women is like having your cake and eating it too, all while fostering empowerment. And if there’s anything we’ve learned over the years, investing in female entrepreneurs is not only a smart move; it’s an economic necessity! And the African Development Bank gets it—no project will see Bank financing without a solid plan to uplift women.

So there you have it: a bustling initiative that merges tech with agriculture, empowering millions of farmers in Africa. With a cast of keystones ranging from the African Development Bank to Mastercard and beyond, they’re sure to sow some digital seeds of success across the continent. Hopefully, the harvest can pay off in more ways than just a seasonal crop—let’s get those farmers connected and fed. Who knew agriculture could sound this exciting? Must have thrown a virtual tractor party!

The African Development Bank Group and Mastercard are to co-chair a new initiative called Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance Africa, which aims to provide digital access in Africa over the next decade.

Providing essential digital services to 100 million people and businesses in Africa over the next ten years is the goal of the MADE initiative. In the first phase of its $300 million commitment for the first five years of the Alliance’s programming, the African Development Bank aims to integrate 3 million farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria into the digital economy via Mastercard Community Pass. The Community Pass gives farmers a digital ID to access a network of digital agricultural agents.

Alliance members include Equity Bank Group, Microsoft, Heifer International, Sustainable Agriculture Foundation, Unconnected.org, Yara, Kenya National Farmers’ Federation, Shell Foundation and CRDB Bank. The Alliance also uses financial support from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

On World Food Day, we asked the African Development Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr. Beth Dunford, about the possibilities that digitalization brings to African farmers and food systems.

Why did MADE Alliance Africa choose to focus on the digitalization of agriculture for smallholder farmers and women as its first initiative, and why do you think the African agricultural sector has so much potential?

Africa is home to 65% of the planet’s remaining uncultivated arable land, and we believe agriculture is a critical sector to drive Africa’s development. Agriculture represents nearly 60% of total employment in Africa and more than 25% of GDP in low-income countries. Across the continent, there is no agriculture without women. It is estimated that they provide 60 to 80% of the sector’s workforce. The growth of agriculture is devastatingly effective compared to many other sectors in lifting people out of poverty, empowering women, feeding Africa’s population, and positioning the continent as a breadbasket for the world. .

Our challenge is that the majority of producers in African food systems are smallholder farmers who, quite simply, struggle from one season to the next due to a lack of access to quality inputs like seeds and crops. fertilizer, or access to affordable financing to purchase essential agricultural products. African smallholder farmers have diverse needs that the MADE Alliance Africa can address by boosting sustainable digital access to essential services.

Through the MADE Alliance, Mastercard Community Pass works with local banks to provide digital IDs to millions of smallholder farmers and women. Digital identities are the gateway to accessing high-quality digital services and inputs. The digitalization of agriculture and distribution of goods will bring huge efficiency gains to the market, as well as reduce waste and fraud across the entire ecosystem.

Mastercard’s Community Pass can help establish digital IDs for millions of farmers, bring more price transparency and help them access agricultural inputs. What are the challenges of bringing this solution to market and how can they be overcome?

Community Pass is designed to work in remote and rural communities, often with limited connectivity and energy access. This technology, to use a popular expression, “meets farmers where they are.” However, implementing these solutions and connecting smallholder farmers and women with financial institutions pose challenges that we believe can be overcome or mitigated through capacity building, infrastructure and new models of collaboration between governments and the private sector.

To scale these technologies to more farmers in a timely manner, we need to work with agricultural cooperatives and member farmer networks who reap many benefits from cooperation. The problem is that the majority of agricultural cooperatives in Africa are not as operationally efficient as in other regions, and the prevalence of digital literacy is relatively low. Africa needs significant investment to educate farmers on how they can leverage digital technologies to access resources.

The MADE Alliance’s digital services can connect farmers to new buyers and suppliers who are physically distant, but the costs of transporting goods to market remain a barrier. Farmers and women especially need digital devices and reliable connectivity to take advantage of the digital economy.

Can you tell us a little more about how MADE Alliance will benefit women?

Nearly half of Africa’s smallholder farmers are women, and the majority of work in the agricultural sector is done by women. However, compared to their male counterparts, female farmers struggle to create sustainable livelihoods in agriculture because they are less likely to have land titles or other assets often needed to access financial services. . Women farmers have less access to information and extension services, and they lack access to inputs such as seeds and fertilizer. They are disproportionately affected by climate risks. Collectively, these challenges result in female farmers typically producing up to 20-30% less than male farmers.

According to the report distributed by the APO Group on behalf of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Community Pass helps women turn agriculture into a sustainable livelihood by providing them with access to service providers essentials like banks and agricultural buyers, as well as creating transparency.

He adds that women are the backbone of African economies and that investing in women entrepreneurs promotes women’s empowerment and autonomy in decisions regarding business, family and community. Investing in African women entrepreneurs is a smart economic move. Investing in African women is one of the cornerstones of the Bank’s work. In fact, no Bank project or program will benefit from Bank financing if it does not specify how it will benefit women.

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