Tamil tea pickers, Sri Lanka
Our Expertise: Agriculture

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.

Photo Credit: Sarah Orton-Vipond Viet Nam
a Livestock Information Vision Ethiopia (aLIVE) Program
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.

2022 - Present Advise, Build
Digital Advisory Support Services for Accelerated Rural Transformation (DAS) Program
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.

2022 - Present Advise, Build
Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA)
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.

2017 - Present

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