Technology
Agricultural technology and digital services
Software, data, payments or tracking tools that make agricultural work easier.
Opportunity to investigateNon-farm-based
- The problem
- The opportunity
- The customer
- The solution
- How money can flow
- What is required
- Start small
- Scale
The problem
Information, payments, traceability and coordination are often manual and unreliable.
The opportunity
Build simple tools that fit real, low-bandwidth, mobile-first conditions.
The customer
- Farmers
- Aggregators
- Cooperatives
- Processors
The solution
Mobile-friendly tools designed with users, tested in the field.
Who pays?
Users, businesses or partners, through subscriptions or fees.
How money can flow
Unproven until users pay; build only after confirming a real, paid need.
What is required
- Technical skills
- User research
- Funding or time
- Local partners
Skills needed
- Software development
- Product design
- Field testing
Major challenges
- Low willingness to pay
- Connectivity
- User trust and adoption
How to start small
Solve one narrow problem for a few real users.
How it could scale
Add features, regions and partners once users depend on it.
Descriptors
- Starting complexity
- High
- Capital intensity
- Medium
- Skill requirement
- Specialized
- Infrastructure
- Minimal
Descriptive categories, not profitability rankings.
Regulatory considerations
Data protection and financial rules may apply, depending on what the product does.
Rules differ by country. Confirm with the relevant national authority.
The customers, routes to market, business models and many practical tips on this page are suggestions, not findings. Know something better? Suggest an improvement →
What the sources say
Source-backed observations about this kind of business in Africa. They describe conditions and challenges, not income or results.
- Digital advisory in sub-Saharan Africa uses a mix of channels, including radio, SMS, voice (IVR) services, video, and apps such as WhatsApp. Voice services in the local language can help people with limited literacy and digital skills.
- Limited internet access and electricity, and the cost of phones and data, are important barriers to using digital tools, especially for poorer smallholders.
- Low digital literacy, especially among older farmers and rural communities, restricts how far farmers can use digital services. Gender gaps in access to digital tools also persist.
- Content quality is a recurring concern. Incorrect or misleading information can be spread, and it is an open question how useful generic content is compared with locally adapted content.
- Approaches described include extension staff supporting social learning, young entrepreneurs who share videos in rural areas for a low cost and sell DVDs, and offline options such as videos on USB or DVD and portable projectors.
- Data privacy and the protection of farmers' data are weakly covered by current rules. A South African review notes the absence of region-specific legal frameworks, recommends frameworks that ensure data privacy, and points to farmers' limited knowledge of how their data is used and protected.
Sources and further reading
Links open in a new tab.
- Digital technologies for climate-smart agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems) — Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
- Digitalisation in agriculture: a scoping review of technologies in practice, challenges, and opportunities for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa — CGIAR (CGSpace)
- Challenges and opportunities in smallholder agriculture digitization in South Africa (systematic review) — Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
The sections above are a general outline and practical suggestions, not findings from these sources. Check local rules with official sources before you act.
Not financial advice and not a promise of income. Try the planning calculator with your own figures.