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
Unlocking Africa’s Agricultural Potential: Introducing the Soil Nutrient Roadmap
For over a decade, Development Gateway: An IREX Venture (DG) has been at the forefront of digital agriculture, leveraging agricultural data to support input monitoring, value chain analysis, and farmer-centric governance models. With funding from the Gates Foundation, DG is launching the Soil Nutrient Roadmap (SNR), a cutting-edge initiative using geospatial data to estimate current and future soil and crop nutrient requirements.
Digital Transformation for Public Value: Development Gateway’s Insights from Agriculture & Open Contracting
In today’s fast-evolving world, governments and public organizations are under more pressure than ever before to deliver efficient, transparent services that align with public expectations. In this blog, we delve into the key concepts behind digital transformation and how it can enhance public value by promoting transparency, informing policy, and supporting evidence-based decision-making.
From Data Gaps to Impact: Key Insights from the VIFAA Program
Over the last six years, DG, together with its partners AfricaFertilizer (AFO) and Wallace & Associates, collaborated to implement the Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) Program. In the program’s final year (2024), the team undertook a “program learning process” to reflect on outcomes, challenges, and successes through internal interviews. This blog captures five key learnings, which we hope will guide similar programs aiming to bridge data gaps in agricultural development.