It is estimated that about 500 million people in Africa are living in poverty. However, despite the introduction of many measures, many African governments, including Nigeria, have not discovered ways to end poverty and hunger. According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, between 2014 and 2016, 233 million people in sub-Saharan Africa suffered from hunger and malnutrition.
Many African nations rely heavily on agriculture for survival, yet farmers still struggle to boost productivity because of a lack of necessary resources.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations seek to end poverty and hunger, respectively. Some African nations, however, are a long way from achieving these objectives. In Africa, achieving food security is a major problem that will remain unmet for decades to come unless the appropriate resources are introduced into the agricultural sector.
By 2050, the world's population will reach 9.1 billion, and in order to feed them, food production would need to increase globally by 70%. In order to prevent further widespread famine, farm production must increase faster than the global average in Africa, where the population is expected to be around 2 billion by then. Africa's expanding population is threatened by low farm production, which is made worse by weather variations, shorter fallow seasons, and rural-urban movement, which deprives farming communities of young people. Many farmers in Africa still employ age-old practices that heavily rely on historical conventions, or they employ implements like hoes and cutlasses.
Why Zenvus is necessary
However, Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe's Zenvus Technology is revolutionizing the industry with a smart solution that enables farmers to use patented electronics sensors to gather soil data like moisture and nutrients, among other things, and communicate it to a cloud server through GSM, satellite, or WiFi.
The server's algorithms review the data and give farmers recommendations on how to increase productivity. According to Ekekwe, the system deploys specialized cameras as the crops develop to improve vegetative health and aid in the identification of pests, illnesses, and drought stress.
Banks, agro-insurers, and agro-investors can subscribe to receive the aggregated data for use in agro-lending, agro-insurance, and commodity trading. With Zenvus, farmers can keep track of all aspects of farming, from planting to harvest to sales.
Ekekwe stated that the goal is to "revolutionize farming output efficiency and productivity in Africa by utilizing the ever-expanding power of technology and science."
Data is essential for innovation
By giving farmers and stakeholders access to real-time data, Zenvus enables them to make well-informed decisions about timing, procedures, and farming crops.
Farmers have traditionally made judgments about agricultural investments based on opinions and shoddy forecasts, which has reduced agricultural productivity. Additionally, the system offers data analytics that link information on potential pest and disease outbreaks in fields, which often lower productivity, enabling farmers to start preventive actions. The data will confess to anything if you torture it, as Professor Ronald Coase once said.
This is a timely breakthrough for a sector that has been predicted to help many African economies as many African leaders have expressed commitment to agriculture both now and in the future.
In order to make sense of what is happening on the farm, powerful computational models are used on a cloud server where the data is wirelessly transmitted, according to Ekekwe.
It is solar-powered and has a long-lasting battery. A farmer interacts with the hardware data via the free Zenvus Web App, which is compatible with desktop and mobile devices.
Zenvus provided assistance.
Zenvus provides a range of services, including "zInsure," which assists Zenvus farmers in insuring their farms, and "zCapital," which assists farmers in raising capital (either in the form of a loan or equity by providing independent farm data from sensors to help banks and investors evaluate the overall profitability of farms. They can assess the hazards using data from actual farms thanks to this.
"zPrices provides farmers in rural Zenvus with real-time produce price information from big cities. With the help of zCrowdfund, Zenvus farmers can raise money from local donors who they can deliver goods to after harvest. It gives farmers the information they need to effectively negotiate pricing with merchants who typically pay them less.
Partners have faith in these farms thanks to sensors, and zMarket offers a venue for Zenvus farmers to sell their goods. By doing so, they can open up new markets by breaking down geographical boundaries.
"zManager is an electronic farm diary that assists Zenvus farmers in keeping track of every aspect of farming, from planting to harvest to sales. It connects harvest days and buyers, keeps all records—financial, personnel, tool, etc.—in one secure location. Rural Zenvus farmers are given access to real-time produce prices in all major cities thanks to zPrices.
It gives farmers information to effectively bargain prices with retailers who typically give them low payments.
The Nigerian government has turned to agriculture as a potential alternative source of income as a result of the decline in the price of crude oil in order to guarantee that the nation's population are free from hunger and poverty.
In order to make agriculture a significant contributor to Nigeria's economic growth, the agricultural value chain needed to be integrated and promoted as a business. While this is still being perfected, it is necessary to include data-driven technologies, such as Zenvus, into farming to aid increase productivity.
More information: https://www.zenvus.com