How stakeholders in Agriculture can leverage data analytics to optimise agricultural production and maximise outputs
Posted by Ahmed Iyanda | 4 years ago | 1,292 times
Experts have made a strong case for leveraging data analytics to optimise agricultural production and maximise output in the Nigerian economy.
This was part of the key submissions at the first edition of the first quarterly webinar hosted by FIDAS, an arm of FarmKonnect Nigeria, which focused on the theme "Big data Ecosystem: What is in it for stakeholders in Nigeria’s Agriculture Industry," that highlighted information, communication, and technology in addressing challenges faced by human in all sectors of the economy.
In the first edition of the 00quarterly webinar, a panel of experts in agriculture and data analytics discussed the concept of big data ecosystem in agriculture and considered its application for farming practices in Nigeria.
Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Lead faculty at Tekedia Institute Boston USA, gave an insightful discussion on how Africa food production is pressured by its increasing population and the significant changes in climatic condition.
He said “Food production is growing in an arithmetic progression and population is growing in geometric progression."
Some of the concepts of data driven agriculture and their effects on agricultural productivity according to Ndubuisi, he said Data becomes the major element to build a system of food security and farmers need to understand what the market and consumers want before going into production.
He further reinforced the importance of data in agriculture and mentioned that “if data in the form of numbers are available, then, it will be easier for farmers to make meaningful decisions.
Prof Ndubuisi also mentioned that majority of problems faced by Nigeria stems from lack of food. When people are hungry, their souls and mind become a tool for people to use.
However, he commends the effort FarmKonnect is channelling towards improving agriculture and ensuring food security.
Mr. Adeiza Suleman, Founder and Chief Executive officer at 10Alytics giving his presentation on how leading organisations have leveraged on data analytics to make informed decisions, noted that the technique of data analytics is devoted to realising actionable insights that can be applied immediately to drive business decisions, referencing Jim Bergeson which stated that “data will talk to you if you are willing to listen”.
According to him, 5-Vs of big data includes volume, velocity, variety, variability, nothing that 90% of all data in the world was generated in the last five years and that the big data analytics market is set to reach $103 billion by 2023.
Also, In 2021, every person will generate 1.7 megabytes in just a second.
"Internet users generate about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day, while
95% of businesses cite the need to manage unstructured data as a problem for their businesses."
"Using big data, Netflix saves $1 billion per year on customer retention.
Regarding how businesses have leveraged big data analytics, Mr. Adeiza cited how Netflix, Target and football teams are using data to save cost on customer retention, provide satisfactory services to customers, and win football games respectively.
"Big data will drive technological revolution in the agricultural sector and one of the major concerns is the gap that exists between supply and demand requires urgent attention is managing supply chain issues," he added.
