Harnessing Data to Enhance Agricultural & Food Security
Enhancing food security is a daunting challenge, specifically for regions with rapidly increasing populations, like sub-Saharan Africa. DG harnesses data to better understand agricultural, economic, and market systems, which helps decision-makers know when, how, and where interventions can support farmers.
Focusing on the Supply of Data
DG has a strong knowledge of agriculture data sources, challenges, and opportunities. We focus on improving the supply of agriculture data; building easy-to-use tools; and supporting governments and the private sector in using data to meet their strategic priorities.
Whole-of-Ecosystem Design
Change requires all elements of the system – production, monitoring, distribution, and quality assurance – to work together synergistically, supporting and underpinning each other. Through in-depth assessments, DG works with stakeholders to understand the data gaps and needs of the agricultural sector at large.
Supporting Markets and Supply Chains
By focusing on supporting decision-makers in larger systems, DG works to ensure smallholder farmers have access to the information they need. We enable decision-making that benefits farmers, and integrate learning strategies throughout – laying a path for collecting high-quality data and delivering high-quality results.
Addressing Unmet Demand
While speaking with hundreds of agricultural stakeholders across multiple countries, we have identified significant, unmet demand for more and better data, and have developed new ways to visualize and analyze existing information to meet that demand.
Un-Siloing Information
From seed systems, to fertilizer markets, to arable land, the information needed to make decisions is often siloed within the private sector, government ministries, or CSOs. DG works with partners to build tools that support information sharing and streamline processes to ensure quality data and sustainability.
a Livestock Information Vision Ethiopia (aLIVE) Program
The aLIVE program is fulfilling the needs of livestock decision-makers in Ethiopia by improving the accessibility and reliability of livestock data. The overall goal of aLIVE is to support Ethiopia in meeting national food demands as well as achieving food security while building a more robust, independent economy.
Digital Advisory Support Services for Accelerated Rural Transformation (DAS) Program
The DAS Program seeks to advance food security across Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia by advancing access to and use of technological solutions that support smallholder farmers.
Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA)
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the lowest fertilizer usage in the world – insufficient to replace soil nutrients lost every year to crop production. To maintain agricultural productivity and sustain farmers, both the government and the private sector in Africa need to better collect, analyze, and use relevant data to encourage fertilizer use. Through the VIFAA Program, we are working with partners on dashboards and tools to improve, manage, and visualize fertilizer data in Africa. VIFAA is a six-year program led by DG in partnership with the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), Wallace & Associates, and with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
More from Our Blog
aLIVE Program Reaches Milestone: Livestock Data Standards Endorsed by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture
In early 2024, the "a Livestock Information Vision Ethiopia" (aLIVE) governing committee endorsed a comprehensive set of standards to guide the collection, storage, and maintenance of livestock data in Ethiopia (i.e., a data standard). The data standard specifically focuses on standardizing data on cattle, sheep, goats, and camels in the country. The National Livestock Data Standard document contains standardized data sets for national animal data recording, animal disease, diagnosis, treatment, vaccination recording, animal events recording, location, and other additional attributes.
Unlocking the potential of digital public infrastructure for climate data and agriculture: Malawi
DG’s DAS Program recently attended an event on creating a national digital public infrastructure (DPI) in Malawi in order to increase the impact of climate data to combat current and future agricultural issues caused by climate change. In this blog, we reflect on three insights on DPIs that were revealed during the event discussion.
What Does a Good Agriculture Data System Look Like? Reflections from 2023 Festival de Datos
DG's joint session at 2023 Festival de Datos posed the question: What does a “good” agriculture data system look like? In this blog post, we'll delve into the key principles that emerged from the discussion.