Landscape News reports that digitisation is taking too long to reach fields and farms.
“Somehow there is a missing link in getting data sets to make sense to the policymaking processes,” said Sara Mbago-Bhunu, director of the East and Southern Africa Division at the International Fund for Agricutltural Development. “There is a very deep analytical gap.”
Mbago-Bhunu was speaking at the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture virtual convention that took place 21–23 October on computer screens all over the world.
While she acknowledges the contributions of GIS-type mapping and national agriculture investment programs, Mbago-Bhunu is not alone in seeing fragmented research divorced from practical application.
Ana Castillo Leska, senior specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank, agreed: “At least in Latin America, we don’t see agricultural research transform into solutions that are user friendly for farmers.”
