Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: ALEX Maere survived the destruction of Cyclone Freddy when it tore through southern Malawi in 2023. His farm didn’t.
The 59-year-old saw decades of work disappear with the precious soil that the floods stripped from his small-scale farm in the foothills of Mount Mulanje.
He was used to producing a healthy 850 kilograms (1,870 pounds) of corn each season to support his three daughters and two sons. He salvaged just 8 kilograms (17 pounds) from the wreckage of Freddy. “This is not a joke,” he said, remembering how his farm in the village of Sazola became a wasteland of sand and rocks.
Freddy jolted Maere into action. He decided he needed to change his age-old tactics if he was to survive. He is now one of thousands of small-scale farmers in the southern African country using a generative AI chatbot designed by the non-profit Opportunity International for farming advice.
The Malawi government is backing the project, having seen the agriculture-dependent nation hit recently by a series of cyclones and an El Niño-induced drought.
Malawi’s food crisis, which is largely down to the struggles of small-scale farmers, is a central issue for its national elections next week, says an AP report. More than 80% of Malawi’s population of 21 million rely on agriculture for their livelihoods and the country has one of the highest poverty rates in the world, according to the World Bank.
Artificial intelligence has the potential to uplift agriculture in subSaharan Africa, where an estimated 33-50 million smallholder farms like Maere’s produce up to 70-80% of the food supply, according to the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development. Yet productivity in Africa — with the world’s fast-growing population to feed — is lagging behind despite vast tracts of arable land.
As AI’s use surges across the globe, it is helping African farmers access new information to identify crop diseases, forecast drought, design fertilizers to boost yields, and even locate an affordable tractor. Private investment in agriculture-related tech in sub-Saharan Africa went from $10 million in 2014 to $600 million in 2022, according to the World Bank.
