To boost agricultural trade in Africa, in the current digital transformation age, changes are needed. In that context, the partnership aims to introduce the use of digital technologies to improve production.

 Microsoft Africa Transformation Office (ATO) and OCP Africa recently announced a new collaboration to boost farmers’ skills and productivity.  The partnership was announced during the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) held in Qatar.  

The partnership aims to improve smallholder farmers’ skills and boost their access to information through agri-digital services by building on OCP Africa programs such as the agri-hub concept, which aims to support millions of farmers.

“Technology is the key factor to enabling and increasing access to finance, equipment, and sustainability for rural farmers, empowering local farmers in Africa. Our partnership with OCP Africa will help to directly impact smallholder farmers and improve production,” said Wael Elkabbany, Microsoft Africa Regional Cluster General Manager. 

Despite rapid urbanization, agriculture-related activities still provide a livelihood for about 60 percent of the continent's working population and account for 15% of GDP.  According to UN agencies' forecasts, farmland is expected to expand and productivity to increase through better use of technology and the implementation of smart and precision farming techniques.

Thus, by partnering together, Microsoft and OCP also aim to develop a digital agriculture platform to improve farmers’ productivity and operation management. The partnership also includes the adoption and integration of technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence, agricultural data platforms, and Azure application modernization in the agricultural sector, leading to precision agriculture.  

According to Mohamed Anouar Jamali, CEO of OCP Africa, the collaboration will, among other things, expand OCP's reach and have an even greater impact on food security across Africa.