CHAPTER TWELVE

Digital Innovations

Using Data and Technology for Sustainable Food Systems

Jawoo Koo, Berber Kramer, Simon Langan, Aniruddha Ghosh, Andrea Gardeazabal Monsalue, and Tobias Lunt

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Digital innovations offer technologies and unprecedented access to data to manage climate risks to food systems

Digital innovations offer unprecedented potential for managing climate risks across the entire agrifood system — from producers to markets and value-chain services to policymakers.
Farmers can benefit from localized weather information services, digital extension services, and weather index-based insurance schemes. Along food value chains, internet-connected sensors can monitor food quality and safety risks, while digital innovations in insurance, credit, and banking can increase access to risk-reducing services for all food system actors.
Innovations in weather and climate forecasting can improve early warning systems and public and private sector decision-making; climate information services have great potential to save lives and reduce damages from extreme weather events.
However, rural food production areas are underserved by digital infrastructure. Hundreds of millions of small farmers, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, do not have mobile network coverage or internet access, and more than 300 million cannot access digital climate advisory services. Women, in particular, have limited access to digital services.

Critical steps to take now include:

Invest to bridge the digital divide. Both private and public investment are needed to address this gap. Given low returns on investments in connectivity in rural areas, policy incentives and public-private partnerships should promote private investments that benefit vulnerable populations and are inclusive of women.
Strengthen agrifood information systems. Decision-makers often lack timely, reliable, and actionable information. Research can help governments identify where better data can best contribute to reducing climate impacts. Digital technologies can provide cost-effective real-time monitoring for forecasting; and expansion of weather stations can provide localized weather data for farmers.
Cultivate digital capabilities to manage climate risks. Strategic investments in “soft” infrastructure — digital climate services, advisory services, actionable information for producers, private-public partnerships for data production, and equal access to financial services — can all boost capacity to identify, manage, and respond to climate risks.

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