By Happy Mulolani

As Zambia grappled with the worst drought last year, various organisations scaled up interventions using digital tools to support communities in coping with the prevalent effects of climate change.

Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) is one of the organisations that has spearheaded plant clinics offering advisory services to smallholder farmers through digital tools.

To help enhance the digital applications, CABI facilitate a two day workshop dubbed “Collaborating for scalable lmpact and Digital Transformation in Zambian Agriculture.”  The meeting was necessary for stakeholders to participate in agricultural digital dialogue, and also harness existing digital innovations, at the sametime explore opportunities for revolutionising Zambia’s digital agricultural landscape.

Speaking on behalf of CABI Regional Director Dr Natasha Mwila, Country Coordinator Dr Chapwa Kasoma explained that CABI reiterated its commitment towards supporting member countries in improving people’s lives through evidence-based science to inform practises and policies, thereby contributing to food, nutritional, and environmental security.

“The need to enhance technological innovations to adequately tackle farmer challenges, enable sustainable production and productivity,” Dr Kasoma emphasized.

Dr Kasoma cited some of the challenges as poor access to information, agro services, and reliable markets. Admittedly, digitalisation in agriculture needs to be utilised to address information gaps, agro services, and market access, in particular smallholder farmers.

For this reason, CABI through Plantwise programme integrates digitalisation in supporting 75million smallholder farmers across 27 countries to manage plant health threats, improve farmer production and incomes, as well as the environment is also protected.

In Zambia, PlantwisePlus focuses on three Ps, which include: predict, prepare, and prevent. These three Ps are premised on the dramatic weather patterns prevailing in recent years, which led to the worst drought experienced last year. Following these climatic changes, CABI wants to support farmers better through finding advanced techniques to address crop losses, working together, and collaborate with various partners.

PlantWisePlus’s vision is to empower women, youth, and smallholder farmers to improve farmer productivity and increase their income, improve food security, and reduce biodiversity losses. The idea is to practise sustainable agriculture and also protect the environment.

Dr Kasoma reiterated that CABI endeavours to leverage existing digital innovations and forge partnerships that will render digitalisation effective in addressing the farmers’ needs and systems that support them.

In his remarks, Ministry of Agriculture Department of Agriculture Director Chizyumba Shepande emphasised that “digital transformation is not just a trend – it is a necessity for making Zambian agriculture more resilient, inclusive and sustainable.”

Dr Shepande reaffirmed that the Ministry of Agriculture remains committed to the digitalisation agenda and also fostering partnerships.

“The government was appreciative of initiatives such as Plantwise to strengthen farmer access to timely, relevant, and localised information,” he reiterated.

Dr Shepande stated that the Ministry is working towards integrating digital tools in extension services, pest and disease surveillance, climate-smart practises, and market linkages.

“This initiative is useful, as it provides up-to-date information on fall armyworms, brown streak disease, maize lethal necrosis, coupled with any other affecting diseases,” he said.

He also said the digital revolution aligns well with the Comprehensive Agricultural Transformation Support Programme (CATSP), which aims to, among others, align with digital transformation in the country.

He further called for the inclusivity of women and youth in Zambia’s agricultural digital space.

Dr Shepande urged participants to actively engage, share knowledge, and co-create solutions to revolutionise the digital space.

The current PlantwisePlus programme builds on a strong foundation known as Plantwise, which ran between 2011 – 2020. It delivered plant advice to 54 million smallholder farmers in over 30 countries. The main pillar used was plant clinics in 30 countries, particularly low middle-income countries, and also trained personnel.

And, Regional Coordinator – Asia, Plantwise-CABI, Dr Malvika Chaudhray explained that CABI makes use of digital principles premised on digital development.

“CABI starts with users and makes use of what exists, then thinks long-term and also endeavours to work collaboratively,” Dr Chaudhray revealed.

She pointed out that strides have so far been made with a CABI academy which has various reports available on a monthly and quarterly basis. These reports are also in a readable translation in order to have a wide reach of farmers.

Dr Chaudhray said they have earmarked to work with Plant Quarantine and Phytosanitary Services (PQPS) on providing digital tools with predictions.

And Senior Agricultural Officer Adamson Tembo who coordinates extension work at district level in Kabwe, has direct contact with farmers’ challenges of productivity in the district. Mr Tembo reveals that farmers encounter challenges such as poor distribution of rainfall, poor farming practices, coupled with inadequate knowledge on pest and disease control, weak extension services, and weak technology transfer.

Mr Tembo acknowledged the usefulness of the CABI digital application which offers vital information on crop pests and diseases surveillance, climate-smart practises and market linkages.

“I was introduced to Plant clinic in 2017. Later, l also learnt of the Plantwise Factsheets App, which is a great resource to carry on phone for crop problems. This app is free to download from the playstore on a phone,” Mr Tembo said.

He was elated that the app has helped in diagnosing pest and diseases affecting farmers’ crops, as it provides timely information and solutions.

“After farmers were introduced to the app, they have gained knowledge on various agronomic practices about plant health, thereby enabling them to effectively avoid crop losses,” Mr Tembo restated.

Mr Tembo indicates that the app has transformed extension work, adding that there is no need to carry books.

He states that whenever he purchases a phone, he considers first, one that has provision for the Plantwise app.

He advised that a lot more can be done to enhance information, if the app can be introduced in various institutions.

“It can be used in schools, and field apps need to be introduced in learning institutions,” Mr Tembo emphasized.

It is a climate-smart tool, which has been displayed as an extension tool to raise awareness, and also gives confidence to work with farmers and eases extension work.

The digital tools aim to revolutionize the agriculture sector and build collaborative partnerships to equip better and empower farmers.