The Teolis Foundation and the Ministry of Agriculture are integrating digital technology into agricultural practice by launching the “Togo Weather Stations” initiative. The purpose of this measure is to provide producers with reliable meteorological data.
The project consists of installing a grid of digital stations throughout the territory in order to allow farmers to monitor their activities by having key information on the country’s agricultural cycles. “These data, which will be available on the farmer’s smartphone and through several other digital sources, will make it possible to know where, when and what to sow, how to maintain the field and when to harvest”says Michel Bagnah, President of the Teolis Foundation.
In this new phase, 120 stations will be deployed. To allow the agricultural sector to develop, an envelope of approximately 45 billion FCFA is provided for by the 2022 finance law. In Togo, agriculture represents more than 40% of GDP. It occupies nearly 65% of its active population, for a cultivable area estimated at 3.6 million hectares, or 60% of the total area of the country, of which 41% is sown (1.4 million hectares).
Agriculture is being transformed by digital technologies. This transformation increasingly improves productivity and production and also enables the exploitation of supply chains. With global warming, African countries are increasingly turning to digital technology to improve harvests. This system makes it possible to monitor and contain the invasion of locusts. This digitization project boosts the yield and profitability of crops for millions of farmers, while taking into account the additional difficulties caused by climate change.
Other digital projects are planned in the other sectors in order to allow a generalization of digital in the various activities of the country.