… Government and stakeholders launch the Agriculture Integrated Information System today!
BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– Officially launched!
This is the Agriculture Integrated Information System (AIIS), which was launched by the Minister of Agriculture Jabulani Mabuza today.
According to information sent out by the Government of Eswatini, the system, which can been accessed on http://www.agrinfosystems.gov.sz/about.php, seeks to enhance the performance and coordination of production and marketing activities for all agriculture value chain players.
At the launch, the World Food Programme (WFP) donated electronic gadgets worth E330 000 to be used to roll out the Agriculture Information System. The equipment includes three laptop computers, two desktop computers, 50 tablet devices, two printers, 23 internet routers, SIM cards, and extension cords.
The Minister said this event was a key milestone in the overall Government policy aimed at creating a conducive environment for digitalisation and leveraging economic growth opportunities in Information and Technology.
“This launch is testament to the drive by Government to modernise delivery of public services, improve access to information and generate evidence based policies for inclusive and sustainable agriculture development.
“In the agriculture sector and related industries, the issue of access to information had long been identified as one of the bottlenecks to aggressive development of the sector. This is more-so due to the existence of many players along our value chains including farmers, input suppliers, processors, traders and other service providers.”
Mabuza, who also doubles as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Pigg’s Peak, said it was in this regard that the Government and her stakeholders prioritised the digitalisation of agriculture as one of the key pathways to accelerate attainment of agriculture related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
“I have learned with excitement the operational capabilities of the Agriculture Information System. One of these include the registration of farmers and other players in the value chains as this will make it easy to target interventions that will improve performance in the various value chains.
“Also, the marketing platform is very key for both suppliers of agricultural products and buyers as this will reduce the transaction costs embedded in doing agribusiness where there is scarcity and or high uncertainty of demand and supply of products and the quality of same.
“The systems will make great input to improving reporting at sector level and also providing real-time data on production, inputs, produce and services across the value chains. Such data will help better inform our production scheduling and control of trade, especially importation of agriculture commodities.” The Minister said with these capabilities and if correctly harnessed, the system was likely to increase investments and trade in the sector thus stimulating overall growth of the sector and improving the welfare of our population that rely on agriculture.
