Windhoek – It is not wise and sustainable to continue practising conventional agricultural methods, such as ploughing and loosening the soil before planting as it puts stress on land resources and is worsened by effects of climate change, says global agricultural experts who convened in Brussels, Belgium, last week.
The meeting brought together participants from the ACP-EU (Caribbean and Pacific countries and the European Union) technical centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the European Commission, the EU Presidency, the ACP Group, Concord, and other partners on key issues and challenges for rural development in the context of EU-ACP cooperation.
The participants, who attended the meeting titled “Affordable smart farming solutions for Africa: the next driver for African agriculture” on 13 July 2016, recommended farmers to use soil management techniques such as conservation agriculture to increase productivity as that reduces soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation.
One of the critical aspects of precision farming is to make technology available to small-scale producers and help them to manage their farms more efficiently.
Precision agriculture (PA) or satellite farming or site specific crop management (SSCM) is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter- and intra-field variability in crops.
African farmers, machinery company representatives with field experience as well as experts from international institutions committed in enhancing sustainable farming systems in Africa also attended the meeting, which focussed on how affordable and smart technology solutions are gaining ground among African growers; what changes and benefits IT tools can bring to farming communities in Africa and successful public-private partnerships that are helping in advancing agricultural strategies in the ACP countries.
For more than 10 000 years, farmers have cultivated crops using trial and error, received wisdom and how the soil feels when they rub it between their fingers and it is only until recently that mechanisation revolutionised the countryside with machinery and replaced horses with tractors.
Read More@http://southernafrican.news/2016/07/25/precision-farming-the-way-to-go-for-africa/
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