RELEVANCE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO AGRIBUSINESS
Agribusiness is the commercial sector that encompasses the entire process of bringing an agricultural product to market including production, processing, and distribution. Information technology is a combination of hardware and software to implement the basic operations that people require on a daily basis. To stay competitive in the global agribusiness market, information technology is essential because it provides the means to develop, process, analyze, exchange, store and secure important data that defines new ways of connecting to the global market.
Agribusiness in Nigeria has flourished in recent years as a result of greater awareness of the country’s need for food security and sustainable food production. Agriculture contributes significantly to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with smallholder farmers playing a key role. Agribusiness and information technology blend to achieve good managerial skills, communication, and information competency. Smallholder farmers reduce risks, develop their systems and support their business plans with a good communication system and information.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the new phase of agriculture used to denote solutions to ease farm management and productivity. It is artificial intelligence farmers use to retrieve real-time information such as light intensity, temperature, soil condition, and humidity. With relevant knowledge derived, farmers will be able to determine when to plant, when their crops mature, faster-milking processes, irrigation system required for soil health, the best time to apply fertilizer, and other inputs required for standard production. Examples of these technologies are robotic milking, grain bin monitoring, water level measurement for tanks and silos, precision soil sampling, and others. Agricultural Drones are also used for GIS (geographic information system) mapping integration and imaging of crop health status for higher agricultural yield.
The advantages of technology irrespective, the smallholder farmers, predominantly living in the rural areas, lack access to smart agricultural education or advisory, a situation evident in their ignorance of new technology and information required to maximize productivity, therefore limiting their access to the profitable markets. As a result, they engage in a variety of (often informal) economic activities to supplement their insufficient earnings, despite the fact that their farmland feeds a large portion of the world’s population.
Agrorite is applying technological innovations and a deep understanding of the needs of smallholder farmers to create a thriving sector in Africa’s most populous nation. Our website (www.agrorite.com) plays a significant professional role in marketing virtual information about the vision, mission, and goals of the firm. It boosts exposure of the brand by welcoming visitors, more prospective clients, and business associates. Our proprietary technology “Agrorite Bookie” is implemented on farmlands to execute a functional setup as a reporting tool for an inventory management system. This influences decisions to sustainability, effective harvest, and distribution of the resultant product. We prioritize helping smallholder farmers become more efficient in agricultural production by enlightening them with general information as well as optimal management strategies for maximizing crop yield and profits. We have succeeded in not only solving difficulties, but also in impacting the livelihoods of over one hundred and thirty thousand (130,000) smallholder farmers positively by providing them with access to finance, clever consulting services, and profitable market links.
