Sustainable Development Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Shweta Sinha, Sukoluhle Mazwane, Moraka N. Makhura, Andrea Du Toit
Abstract
Agriculture food systems have increasingly used digital technologies to provide agriculture advisory, financing, traceability and payment services to support trade and commerce (Grow Asia, 2021). Studies indicate that the pandemic triggered the inclusion of more actors across the agricultural value chain that leverage digitisation and digital information systems to support advisory but has witnessed limited expansion in E-commerce marketplaces and farmer management solutions (USAID, 2021b). Adopting and implementing these technologies remain a constraint in agrarian economies with limited funding policies to support sharing infrastructure costs for small-scale farmers. With the further growing population, food systems are challenged with pressures to achieve food security by 2030. Digitisation and the emerging digital agricultural revolution indicate trends of boosting the transition of agrifood production towards more sustainable paradigms. Still, the trade-off needs to be analysed and assessed carefully. Assessment and estimation of these digital initiatives and programs require the development and application of robust evaluation methods.