Hopetown, South Africa. A tiny village, close to the Orange River. Close to the Kalahari desert. Watch it on Google-maps and you will see a township, surrounded by a dry moon-landscape with green center pivot circles along the river. The first diamond, the Eureka Diamond, was found at Hopetown. So this is going to be a story of hope.
Hopetown, South Africa. A tiny village, close to the Orange River. Close to the Kalahari desert. Watch it on Google-maps and you will see a township, surrounded by a dry moon-landscape with green center pivot circles along the river. The first diamond, the Eureka Diamond, was found at Hopetown. So this is going to be a story of hope.
Nowadays a new green revolution is going on. It has just started, so the impact is not noticed every where and by everyone yet. Visit the agricultural exhibition Agritechnica in Hannover and you will be flabbergasted. Technical innovations all over the place. And a lot of them are in the category smart agriculture.
With smart agriculture (also called: precision agriculture) and big data technology (via internet) you are able to work site-specific. One example. With sensors you can monitor the condition of your soil on that field. Does it need water; yes or no ? Do I have to start irrigation: yes or no ? How much water do I have to give by irrigation ? Sensors are helping you to determine where and when you have to start with irrigation and which amount. At this way it helps you to save water. Because experience learns that most of the farmers start too late with irrigation, resulting in a smaller yield. But when they start irrigating, they give way to much water. Resulting in a waste of water. And a waste of energy and money. Because the pivot engine needs gasoline or electricity.
Sensors can not only help you to decide when to irrigate. They can help you to take a lot of other agricultural decisions site-specific. Like spraying against weeds. Like spraying pesticides against diseases. Like giving fertilizers. When you do these things site-specific you prevent a lot of waste. And money. Why fertilise your entire field, when your field is only short of Nitrate at the high uphill parts ? At this way smart agriculture is contributing to sustainable agriculture. The input can be minimalized, the output will be much higher. The planet will be healthier, the profit will be higher, the people will be happier. This is the future of agriculture. And this future is just started.
However there is a “but”. Investments in smart agriculture costs a lot of money. Visit the Agritechnica in Hannover and you will be astonished again. You will have to make huge costs before you can enjoy all these benefits of smart agriculture. For an average African smallholder farmer smart agriculture is unattainable. For an average African family farmer it is a huge investment. And the differences in yields between smallholder farmers and multinational food suppliers already are increasing. How to overcome this hurdle ?
The answer is to combine all these new technical innovations with the century-old model of the cooperative. Cooperatives can play a major role to make smart agriculture achievable for every family farmer in the world. Large-scale farmers or smallholder farmers. Because a joined investment means joined costs, joined risks and joined benefits. The cooperative can invest, the members can benefit by paid service.
And that’s where Hopetown, South Africa is coming in again. As a manager for Dacom, a consultancy company for sustainable agriculture, I had the privilege to visit this town, back in 2012. I remember the nice car trip from Kimberley to Hopetown, driving along the old diamond mines, the springboks and blue monkeys. The old homesick Dutch lady, owner of our Bed &Breakfast, explaining the Dutch traditions of Elfstedentocht and Sinterklaas to my South African colleague. And of course I remember the business goal: visiting OVK, the cooperative for farmers with the slogan “Together we achieve more”.
In South Africa water is scarce. Especially at the border of the Kalahari desert. The government gives the farmer water rights. When they have a certain amount of land, farmers have the right to use a certain amount of water. But when the farmer saves water, he can cultivate more land and grow more crops. So this is a big stimulant to invest in water saving technology.
OVK had bought a soil scanner. This scanner gives the farmer information about various properties of the soil, like the grain size, the texture and the mineral composition in his field. This information can be used to optimise the irrigation. Based on the scan, OVK divided each center pivot circle in 3 parts. At sandy parts the speed of the pivot was slowed down, so more water was irrigated. At clay parts the pivot could speed up, to save water. Every part of the pivot circle had his own sensor, to advise the farmer on irrigation. The cooperative OVK invested in this expensive equipment. The members of the cooperative can hire the equipment. Agricultural service with a high added value. Smart agriculture, with lower input and higher yields, on a cooperative basis.
This cooperative approach of smart agriculture is a modern diamond for agricultural societies. Watch how Agriterra can support you in this process at www.agriterra.nl . Joining each other, investing in smart agriculture together. The cooperative does the investment, the members hire the equipment from the cooperative. At this way the cooperative can be the missing link in this process, connecting smallholder farmers with innovative and expensive modern equipment. So they can keep competing with the big agri-companies. Missing link, but also an accelerator. Closing the yield gap in Asia and Africa.
This is Hopetown.
Lessons learned:
•Governments can stimulate sustainable agriculture by clever laws.
•Smart agriculture can boost your agricultural output with savings on input.
•High investments in innovative smart equipment can be done by your cooperative
•The cooperative can provide added value by providing smart agriculture equipment as a paid service to her members.
©2016 Jan Heemskerk
