The African Development Bank (AfDB) will host a two-day hybrid training session for young people from southern African countries, including Namibia, on the role of technology in the development of agricultural practices.
According to Afrik21, an online publication on the green economy, the environment and sustainable development in Africa, the course will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 27 and 28 September.
“The course will be attended in person as well as online and will bring together key public and private sector change-makers from southern Africa, who can effectively implement and scale up digital climate advisory services,” said Afrik21.
Besides Namibia, other participants will be drawn from South Africa, Eswatini, Botswana and Lesotho.
The publication said the Digital Climate Advisory Services training course will benefit from the expertise of the Dutch organisation Weather Impact and the South African scientific platform Aqualinks.
“The main aim will be to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, best practices and experiences, and to explore the latest innovations and approaches to ensure resilience in crop production and distribution in the sub-region,” said the AfDB of the initiative, which is part of its African Adaptation Acceleration Programme.
According to Afrik21, at the end of the workshop, the preselected participants will be able to propose concrete solutions to prevent food insecurity in their home countries.
The course modules will combine the use of information and communication technology to increase agricultural yield and incomes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in value chains.
“It will feature practical applications, challenges and opportunities in developing, marketing and maintaining these advisory services,” said the organisers who added the online application form can be obtained on the Afrik21 website.
The course organisers say climate change poses significant challenges to agricultural practices that have traditionally relied on intergenerational knowledge transfer.
“With the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns and the rise in extreme weather events like floods and droughts, and even the prolonged war in Ukraine, farmers face immense difficulties sustaining their livelihoods.
“Digital solutions should, therefore, help to boost agricultural productivity on the continent by using sensors to optimise irrigation, disseminating weather data to farmers and connecting them with industries to speed up the sale of their produce,” said Afrik21, adding that this could also make the profession of agricultural engineers more attractive.
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