Transforming African agricultural markets through digital innovations: What we (do not) know

Kibrom A. Abay, Gashaw Tadesse Abate, Jordan Chamberlin (), Yumna Kassim, David Spielman () and Martin Paul Jr Tabe-Ojong ()

No 21, MENA policy notes from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: This policy note synthesizes the key messages and lessons from existing evidence and trends in the development, deployment and scale up of ICT-enabled marketing tools. It is based on the recently published discussion paper titled “Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there†. Key messages • Many digital innovations have been developed and deployed in recent years in Africa, many of which have only been implemented at pilot stages, with limited evidence of successful scaling. • There remains significant marketing and institutional constraints hindering the development of some of these digital innovations, which may further explain disparate progress in countries. • Differential access to digital innovations across genders and different typologies of households may trigger alternative variants of digital divide. • Although the landscape of digital innovations in Africa offers several reasons to remain optimistic, the prevailing disconnect between pilots and scale-ups merits further evaluation.

Keywords: AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; CENTRAL AFRICA; EAST AFRICA; NORTH AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; WEST AFRICA; digital technology; innovation; agriculture; markets; digital divide; risk; Information and Communication Technologies; policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr and nep-ict
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