AI to forecast food insecurity in Africa in the offing

Food insecurity remains one of the major challenges in Africa and hunger on the continent has been on the rise since 2014.

This problem has been widely associated with climate change and the fact that 95 percent of farmers engage in rainfall agriculture.

To address these problems identified with technology, Google Research Africa is developing a tool to forecast food insecurity.

The forecast would help detect early warning signs and stakeholders can work towards curbing the problem - food insecurity - to avert any food shortage(s) and hunger.

Addressing journalists in Accra on Tuesday, November 12, 2023, Senior Research Scientist at Google Research Africa, William Ogallo, stressed that food insecurity is influenced by multiple features such as climate change, conflict, economics, and politics.

“Africa has a high risk of being food insecure for several reasons. The primary one is that Africa relies on what we call rainfall agriculture for its productivity so most of the farmers rely on rainfall agriculture for food production. At the same time, about 60 percent of Africa’s economy is driven by agriculture. So, everybody who works in Africa, 70 per cent are in the agric industry. Imagine that anything like climate change can significantly impact the food industry in Africa and drive millions of people to hunger,” he said.

The goal of the forecasting is to provide frequent, precise and actionable food security predictions that enable smarter planning and resource distribution.

This will mitigate the risks of food crises before they escalate.

Also, this proactive approach aims to offer a more cost-effective and timely alternative to traditional farming methods.

Meanwhile, it is projected that Africa will have high demand for cereals by 2030.

Some key projects of Google Research Africa include open buildings dataset, weather forecasting, and flood forecasting.

AI for societal impact

AI will help organize the world’s knowledge and make it universal and useful for all.

Google aims at maximizing the positive side of AI while addressing the challenges.

Some languages on Google translate are; Twi, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Swahili, Kinyarwanda.

SA/MA

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