Agricultural transformation will remain constrained unless governments make data more accessible and interoperable for businesses, farmers and investors, participants at an AgriConnect panel have warned
African governments are sitting on vast amounts of agricultural data that could unlock investment, improve access to finance and strengthen markets, but much of it remains trapped in institutional silos, a panel on agricultural transformation has heard.
Anup Jagwani, Global Director for Farming and Agribusiness at the World Bank Group, said governments needed to find ways of making public data more accessible and usable by farmers, investors and businesses if the continent was serious about transforming agriculture.
His comments followed remarks by Malawi Agriculture Minister Roza Mbilizi, who said the country had extensive research and data within government but often failed to communicate it to the people and businesses that could use it.
“There’s a lot of data, a lot of information that is created in government but this is not known by the other stakeholders,” Mbilizi said.
She said Malawi had numerous researchers, including academics and PhD holders in the Ministry of Agriculture, but questioned whether their work was reaching businesses and investors in a form that could guide investment.
“Where is the result? I mean, who knows about what they are doing?” she asked.
The government is now attempting to package some of that information for the private sector.
Mbilizi said Malawi had identified 15 agricultural value chains and was prioritising four, with plans to expand the priority group to seven.
The government has analysed each value chain to determine what investors need to produce, aggregate and process agricultural commodities, including the amount of capital required and potential returns.
The objective is to allow investors to assess opportunities using concrete data rather than relying on fragmented information.
Jagwani said the wider AgriConnect initiative was pursuing a similar approach by working with technology partners to develop an “interoperable layer” through which agricultural data could be accessed and used for multiple purposes.
Data, he said, could support the provision of services, access to financing and connections to markets.
“How can we take that data and create an interoperable layer that people can access that data and do something with it?” he asked.
The discussion placed data within a broader argument that agricultural transformation cannot be achieved by agriculture ministries working alone.
Jagwani said infrastructure, digital technology, irrigation, education, energy, roads and policy all had to be considered as part of the agricultural system.
In many cases, he said, constraints to agricultural investment were located “beyond the farm”.
Policy was another major obstacle.
Jagwani argued that agricultural technologies such as improved seeds could be deployed much more rapidly if countries within regional economic blocs streamlined regulatory processes.
He questioned why a technology developed in one country should take years to reach farmers in a neighbouring country because of separate regulatory procedures.
The issue reflects a wider concern discussed on the panel: Africa can invest in production and infrastructure but still fail to realise the full economic benefits if systems remain disconnected.
The panellists argued that the same principle applied to information.
Farmers and businesses need to know what services government offers, what research has found, where investment opportunities exist and what support mechanisms are available.
Without that information, potentially valuable public knowledge remains economically dormant.
Mbilizi said government needed to change its own mindset as part of that process, becoming more open and inclusive and allowing private-sector players, youth and other stakeholders to participate in decisions.
For AgriConnect, the challenge is to turn fragmented information into a shared digital and investment ecosystem capable of connecting millions of farmers with finance, technology and markets.
