This drone takes flight on a specific mission to a plantation in Kovié, a town situated 40 kilometers north of Togo’s capital, Lomé.
The technicians on-site have a variety of aims while flying over these plantations, one of which is to gather data to aid with soil fertilization.
Technicians also use the drones to diagnose diseases and provide suitable treatments. Local farmers are benefiting from the modern approach.
”Their way of spraying is better than our way. We need to walk through the crop to do the spraying, which damages the commodities because we walk on the rice. But they do not touch the field because everything is done in the air. We prefer their method”, said producer, Carlos Sanve.
The drone company, E-Agri Sky was founded as part of E-Agri Business, an initiative to modernize agribusinesses.
Young people from all across the continent come to this certification facility to get online or in-person training in digital agriculture.
”I would say that Africa is a bit behind in the use of these digital tools. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t say that it is a delay but it is a lack of will. I used to watch movies and see just white people doing it and I thought when can we get there? But since we got into it, we’ve seen that we’ve done really good. We have encountered difficulties but we adapt these digital tools to our African context”, said E-Agri Sky Coordinator, Pascal Tsekpui.
Agriculture employs 86% of rural families in Togo and accounts for 40% of national revenue. This equates to approximately 4 million farmers out of a total population of 7 million.
