Tinashe Sithole Correspondent

If you meet two people of the same age, one rural and the other urban, the technological divide is evident. Urbanites appreciate the importance of technology in their daily lives, whereas rural folk seem to have little concern as to how technology can assist them.

This gets more pronounced as one goes up the age ladder, with rural older generations shying away from technology altogether. Though the differences in earnings or education can explain some of the apparent rural folks’ lack of interest, access and exposure seem to be the key.

In most cases, urbanites have been exposed to technology, not by choice, but rather by circumstances beyond their control. In cities, even vendors on street corners sell fruits or newspapers using some electronic method of payment, for example, a mobile phone. While technology has deeply infiltrated the urbanite, why have rural folk been left behind? And what can they do to catch up?

Rural folks need to accelerate their uptake of technology, at both micro and macro level. They can no longer afford the luxury of taking a backseat while the technology train takes them wherever it goes. They need to take the lead.

Agriculture being the basis of our rural economy, technological advancements should be prioritised. In many developed countries and a number of developing countries, technology has changed the agricultural landscape: from how crops are produced in the field, all the way to how they are placed on the supermarket shelves.

Smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe use manual labour to work their land, and travel long distances in anticipation of someone purchasing their crops. This takes time — an enormous waste in a farmer’s life — and a lot of resources that, in most cases, farmers cannot afford.

These days, farmers in the developed world rely on state-of-the-art equipment and the latest technology that feed them information which helps them planning at production as well as marketing levels.

Whether they own these devices or access them for a weekly, monthly or yearly fee, access to these technologies makes farmers more productive, effective and efficient. It is high time African rural farmers change their farming methodology and adopt these technological advances, in order to reach the next level. Of course, these changes will take time and a period of adaptation will be necessary.

This past decade, agriculture has been vastly transformed by technology. One aspect that has seen big changes is the way in which crops are marketed. Historically, farmers grew crops without an understanding or appreciation of the value chain. Nowadays, with the right technology, farmers can inform themselves on the type of crops demanded by the market, when and where it is required, and how the price is fluctuating throughout the year. This means that farmers with access to such information have a huge competitive advantage over their fellow rural smallholder Zimbabwean farmers.

As we move towards bringing technology into agriculture, we need to bring in solutions that are appropriate, sustainable and user friendly. There are a number of applications that have been developed to assist rural farmers in Zimbabwe and across the world.

Two have caught my eye.

These are Kurima Mari (KM) and AgriShare (AS) applications, available on the Google play store, developed by Welt Hunger Hilfe (WHH) and Community Technology Development Organisation (CTDO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement.

For information provision to farmers, KM is one of the best applications out there. Some of its key features include the capability to take the farmer through the cropping/livestock circles and management. This means that a farmer, by interacting with his smartphone, is able to learn what matters most on a particular subject.

On the other hand, the application AS, links agricultural equipment owners and farmers. Its aim is to allow farmers to have access to equipment, while equipment owners have access to a large market.

Tinashe Sithole is the Digital Innovations coordinator for Community Technology Development Organisation, a Harare-based institution that promotes sustainable development.