Cow facial recognition and AI generated soil analysis to drive up crop yields are being used by farmers to head off Africa’s looming food crisis.
As Africa’s annual spending on imported food edges closer to $100 billion, farmers are increasingly turning to technology to solve shortages driven by a population explosion and shifting diets that have outpaced agricultural production.
The continent is increasingly reliant on foreign markets for everyday staples such as sugar, rice and wheat.
However, more than half of Africa’s total food imports are consumed by just five nations: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria.
Feeding growing population
Africa's population is estimated to reach nearly 2.5 billion by 2050 and is expected to double to about 3.8 billion by 2100.
Speaking at the first Gitex Kenya tech conference in Nairobi, experts said artificial intelligence and other forms of advanced technology can help farmers improve productivity and reap the economic rewards.
Vimal Shah is chief executive of Bidco Africa, one of the continent’s largest food and beverage suppliers, and said technology can help repel climate issues that devastate crops.
“None of us can change the climate, we can only change the way we talk to it and how we respond to it,” said Mr Shah. “But it does have a big impact because when agriculture shakes, everything shakes. If food prices change, everything else happens.
“Now with AI, there's so much more that's possible, climate smart means predictive farming. We are sitting on huge volumes of data and weather reports. AI can harness that to improve the quality of farming.”
The warmest stretch of weather since 1981 for most of East Africa took place from 2020 to 2025, with the Horn of Africa experiencing the most extreme temperature anomalies.
In East Africa, drought gripped Somalia, south-eastern Ethiopia and eastern Kenya, peaking in 2021-2022 and returning in 2024.
Soil solution
One Kenyan company searching for farming solutions is Rhea Healthy Soil.
The company supports more than 100,000 farmers across Africa, providing them with 95 per cent accurate data reports, generated using AI.
Small holdings use Rhea’s technology to optimise soil nutrients, prevent degradation and improve sustainability by reducing overuse of fertilisers.
The technology has become even more prescient due to the pending global shortage, with a third of the world’s seaborne fertiliser transported through the Strait of Hormuz.
The channel has faced severe disruption to delivery of critical farm fertilisers since the outbreak of the Iran war.
Face of the future
Another solution being explored by farmers is Halisi Livestock. The AI-driven biometric facial recognition platform is designed to identify and track individual livestock.
Farmers upload smartphone photos of their cattle to verify ownership, without the need for expensive physical tags.
Software uses computer vision algorithms to analyse unique biometric patterns of a cow’s face or muzzle, in a similar way to using facial ID on mobile phones.
Once matched, the farmer can instantly pull up the animal's vaccination records, age, lineage and ownership history.
Ramesh Moochikal, chief executive of Africa Improved Foods, Rwanda, said the farms his company supports have turned to drones to assess which crops are in need of special attention and to spot signs of disease.
“We have lots of progressive solutions and the government in Rwanda is very open-minded about whatever can be done to help responsible farming,” he said.
“In doing so, in the last seven years we have tripled the maize yield. By using drones, we are able to give farmers multiple pictures as to what is the state of the crop, which part of the crop needs a fertiliser, extra support or irrigation.”
Targeted solutions
It is not, though, a one-size-fits-all approach. In a market flooded with mobile apps aimed at the farming community, many are useless in Africa as the algorithm data is from the US or China.
“We’ve seen the evolution of the extension of services for support to farmers through AI, by using the power of local languages,” said Thule Lenneiye, chief of staff at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, an African-led institution that supports smallholder farmers through regenerative agriculture, climate-smart seeds and wider market access.
“We did a trial run in Ethiopia using AI but the advice given was for a farmer in Iowa cultivating hectares of potatoes. I think it's important we make sure when we develop these AI platforms and systems that they are more inclusive and appropriate for the countries we're working in. There are big opportunities in Africa but we are a fragmented continent with 54 countries.”
Scientists are also trawling through open -source data and satellite imagery to help farmers improve productivity.
Zindi, a South African business that hosts the largest community of African data scientists, is working to solve the world's most pressing challenges using machine learning and AI.
Chief executive Celina Lee said there is huge potential, if farmers are given the information that is most valuable to them.
“There is tonnes of open-source data but now it's about connecting it to the problems farmers are facing, and that’s much harder than we think,” she said.
“There's a place where AI can add efficiency, value and reach in multiple ways, but the only pathway to scale is to make sure that we're addressing the right problems farmers face.”
