Agritech, which consists of gadgets such as drones, amongst others, has been helpful to assist farmers to get a bird’s eye view of their farms and crops. OFM News’ Elsabé Richard spoke to Ross Jenvey, General Partner at Kingson, about agritech and how popular these technological findings are in farming communities in South Africa.

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Jenvey explains that all technological solutions that benefit the agricultural sector can be marked as agritech. He says some of the examples are drone technology and the internet of things (IoT) – which are devices that communicate with one another by means of WiFi technology. Farmers can use the IoT, for example, to be informed when there are pipe leakages on their farms. "We need agritech to help the agricultural sector make quantum leaps forward," explains Jenvey.

He further adds that one would usually see that entrepreneurs who come up with these agritech solutions, have grown up in farming communities and have identified problems that need solving. He explains that these individuals understand the issues and are aware of some of the problems farmers face on a daily basis.

Jenvey says that some of the reasons that agritech might not be so popular in South Africa might be because of concerns regarding land redistribution. He says this could potentially scare some investors away. “Even so, I think maybe there has not been a great deal of innovation in this space yet, and maybe people are focused on other things… such as food security,” he adds.

Regarding the future of agritech in South Africa, Jenvey says he believes that more innovations will be developed within the country from current entrepreneurs as well as start-up businesses. He also adds that funding is an important issue but foresees more funding opportunities and creativity around funding in the future, because of issues that the Land Bank is facing at the moment.

Meanwhile, Jenvey says farmers need a helping hand at the moment, considering farm attacks that have been plaguing farming communities in the recent months. He adds: “We as the rest of the population really need to understand how much effort and work they [farmers] put in to make sure that the food we get to eat is there and readily available - and that food security isn’t a problem.”

Furthermore, he urges farmers to educate themselves about agritech and read technology magazines, publications, Google or follow trends.

OFM News