Digital Agriculture report Glossaries

List of figures and tables

1. Executive Summary and Introduction

Figures

Figure 1.1: Digital agriculture framework

 

2. Commonwealth Africa

Figures

Figure 2.1: Map of Sub-Saharan Africa Showing Commonwealth countries

Figure 2.2: Current state of climate change vulnerability and readiness of Commonwealth countries in Africa to respond to climate shocks

Figure 2.3: Percentage change in cereal yields given percentage increases/decreases in temperatures.

Figure 2.4: Distribution of digital agriculture solutions by use case

Figure 2.5: Distribution of digital agriculture solutions by distribution media

Figure 2.6: Business development for digitalisation of the agriculture in Africa

Figure 2.7: Price of Mobile Internet in Commonwealth countries

Figure 2.8: GSMA Mobile Connectivity Indices of African Commonwealth countries (2019)

Tables

Table 2.1: Propotion of women in agriculture

Table 2.2: Content data for digital solutions

Table 2.3: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people)

Table 2.4: Individuals using the internet (% of the population)

Table 2.5: Roads paved (% of total roads) by country in selected Commonwealth countries

Table 2.6: Recommendation for African countries to increase investment in digital agriculture innovations

Table 2.7: Recommendation for African countries to increase investment in data infrastructure

Table 2.8: Recommendation for African countries to increase investment business development

Table 2.9: Recommendation for African countries to create an enabling environment for digitalisation to thrive

 

3. Commonwealth Asia

Figures

Figure 3.1: Map of Asia showing Commonwealth countries

Figure 3.2: Current state of climate change vulnerability and readiness of Commonwealth countries in Asia to respond to climate shocks

Figure 3.3: Participation in agriculture by Commonwealth Asian of women

Figure 3.4: Rural women in household production: segments, tasks and access to food and resources

Figure 3.5: Youth versus adult unemployment rate in South Asia

Figure 3.6: Distribution of digital solutions by use case

Figure 3.7: Distribution of digital solutions by delivery media

Figure 3.8: Private entity/service provider-led business model

Figure 3.9: Donor-led business model 

Figure 3.10: Social business model

Figure 3.11: Farmer-producer business model

Figure 3.12: GSMA Mobile Connectivity Indices of Asian Commonwealth countries (2019)

Tables

Table 3.1: Private sector credit to agriculture

Table 3.2: Employment in agriculture, female (% of female employment)

Table 3.3: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people)

Table 3.4: Individuals using the internet (% of the population)

Table 3.5: Recommendation for Asian countries to increase investment in digital agriculture innovations

Table 3.6: Recommendation for Asian countries to increase investment in data infrastructure

Table 3.7: Recommendation for Asian countries to increase investment business development

Table 3.8: Recommendation for Asian countries to create an enabling environment for digitalisation to thrive

 

4. Commonwealth Caribbean and the Americas

Figures

Figure 4.1: Map of Caribbean and the Americas showing Commonwealth countries

Figure 4.2: Current state of climate change vulnerability and readiness of Commonwealth Caribbean SIDS to respond to climate shocks

Figure 4.3: How women participate along the value chain

Figure 4.4: GSMA Mobile Connectivity Indices for Caribbean Island Commonwealth countries (2019)

Figure 4.5: Distribution of digital solutions by use case category

Figure 4.6: Distribution of digital solutions by delivery media

Figure 4.7: Bundled sale of agriculture hardware and digital agriculture solutions

Tables

Table 4.1: Proportion of private sector credit to agriculture (Caribbean SIDS)

Table 4.2: Agriculture Orientation Index (share of credit provided to agriculture over the share of agriculture in GDP)

Table 4.3: The Liner Shipping Connectivity Index

Table 4.4: Individuals using the internet (% of population)

Table 4.5: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people)

Table 4.6: Recommendation for Caribbean SIDS to increase investment in digital agriculture innovations

Table 4.7: Recommendation for Caribbean SIDS to increase investment in data infrastructure

Table 4.8: Recommendation for Caribbean SIDS to increase investment business development

Table 4.9: Recommendation for Caribbean SIDS to create an enabling environment for digitalisation to thrive

 

5. Commonwealth Pacific

Figures

Figure 5.1: Map of the Pacific showing Commonwealth countries

Figure 5.2: Current state of climate change vulnerability and readiness of Commonwealth Pacific SIDS to respond to climate shocks

Figure 5.3: Access to finance and investment

Figure 5.4: Distribution of digital solutions by service category

Figure 5.5: GSMA Mobile Connectivity Indices for Pacific Island Commonwealth countries (2019)

Tables

Table 5.1: Some major food production systems across Pacific SIDS

Table 5.2: The predominant climate-related phenomena in the region

Table 5.3: Potential impact of climate change on the agriculture sector (food systems) in Pacific SIDS

Table 5.4: The Liner Shipping Connectivity Index

Table 5.5: Individuals using the internet (% of population) (Pacific Islands)

Table 5.6: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) (Pacific Islands)

Table 5.7: Policy Recommendations to close identified gaps

Table 5.8: Recommendation for Pacific Islands to increase usage of existing digital agriculture innovations

Table 5.9: Policy recommendations to close identified gaps

Table 5.10: Policy recommendations to close identified gaps

Table 5.11: Individuals using the internet (% of population) (Australia and New Zealand)

Table 5.12: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) (Australia and New Zealand)

 

6. Commonwealth Europe

Figures

Figure 6.1: Map of the Europe showing Commonwealth countries

Figure 6.2: Current state of climate change vulnerability and readiness of Commonwealth countries in Europe to respond to climate shocks

Figure 6.3: The Liner Shipping Connectivity Index

Figure 6.4: Distribution of digital solutions by service category

Figure 6.5: Distribution of digital solutions by primary delivery media

Figure 6.6: GSMA Mobile Connectivity Indices for European Commonwealth countries (2019)

Tables

Table 6.1: Youth participation in agriculture

Table 6.2: Individuals using the internet (% of population)

Table 6.3: Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people)

 

7. Conclusion and recommendations

Figures

Figure 7.1: Number of value propositions

Figure 7.2: Distribution of solutions by proprietor

Figure 7.3: Distribution of digital solutions by service offering

Figure 7.4: Distribution of digital solutions by primary delivery media

Figure 7.5: Digital solution revenue streams when serving smallholder farmers  

Figure 7.6: Digital solution revenue streams when serving commercial farmers

Figure 7.7: Price per gigabite and percentage of the population using the Internet by continent

Figure 7.8: Mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 people and percentage of the population using the Internet by continent

Figure 7.9: GSMA Index scores by continent

 

Glossary

Aadhar: Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by residents or passport holders of India, based on their biometric and demographic data.

Agri e-commerce digital solutions: Solutions in this category include strictly those that enable farmers to buy inputs and sell their produce (both crops and livestock) to both local and international buyers.

Agro-Economic Zones: The division of an area of land into smaller units, which have similar characteristics related to land suitability, potential production and environmental impact.

Animal-based post-harvest advisory digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide information to livestock farmers beyond the preparation of animals for market. This includes information about prices, market access, animal product management, and more.

Animal-based pre-harvest advisory digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide information to farmers regarding the activities and processes that prepare livestock for market. This includes information about disease management, feed management, livestock data management and more.

Big data: Large, diverse, complex data sets generated from instruments, sensors, financial transactions, social media, and other digital means, and typically beyond the storage capacity and processing power of personal computers and conventional analytical software.

Blockchain: A digital database containing information such as records of individuals, land and financial transactions that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large decentralised, publicly accessible network (“distributed ledger”) and stores transaction histories between parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.

Cell: A wireless connection within a limited area.

Cell- Site: A cell site (also called a cell tower, or cellular base station) is a cellular-enabled mobile device site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed typically on a radio mast, tower or other raised structure to create a cell (or adjacent cells) in a cellular network.

Cellular network: A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called “cells”, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically three cell sites or base transceiver stations). These base stations provide the cell with network coverage which can be used for the transmission of voice, data and other types of content.

Credit scoring digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide alternative credit scoring means to farmers that are not based on collateral.

Crop and livestock post-harvest advisory digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide post-harvest information to farmers regarding both livestock and crops. This includes information about post-harvest product handing, access to markets, subsidies by Government and more.

Crop and livestock pre-harvest advisory digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide pre-harvest information about crops, livestock and livestock products. This includes weather information, disease information, extension information, information about access to inputs and other pre-harvest-related information.

Crop-based post-harvest advisory digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide information to farmers after the harvest of their crops, for example, advise about access to markets, post-harvest handling, crop marketing and more.

Crop--based pre-harvest advisory digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide information to farmers before the harvest of produce: for example, information on weather, planting best practices, weed management, ploughing methods and more.

Customary land: Customary land is land which is typical occupied by tribe, clan or any form of social grouping and administered in accordance with their customs, as opposed to statutory tenure usually which is administered in accordance with laws.

Data management digital solutions: These are solutions that enable farmers organise production-related information about their crops or livestock in order to track costs, scheduled activities and more.

Digital wallets/payments: These are digital solutions that enable farmers to save incomes and make payments for inputs, payments on loans, and also enable farmers to receive payments.

Drone: Remote-controlled aircraft (used without human pilots inside) that have many applications for agriculture such as field surveillance and remote diagnostics of agronomic conditions such as plant and crop diseases, water resources and soil quality.

Extension service: An agricultural extension service offers technical advice on agriculture to farmers and also supplies them with the necessary inputs and services to support their agricultural production.

Fixed broadband: Fixed broadband subscriptions refer to fixed subscriptions to high-speed access to the public internet (a TCP/IP connection), at downstream speeds equal to, or greater than, 256 kbit/s. This includes cable modem, DSL, fibre-to-the-home/building, other fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions, satellite broadband and terrestrial fixed wireless broadband.

GPS: It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.

Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: The GNI per capita is the dollar value of a country's final income in a year, divided by its population.

Input financing digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide farmers specific access to affordable financing of pre- and post-harvest farm activities.

Insurance digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide farmers means to insure their crops and livestock and cushion farmers against agricultural losses.

Internet of Things (IoT): System in which devices including mobile phones, sensors, drones and satellites are connected to the internet.

Multispectral image: A multispectral image captures image data within specific wavelength ranges across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI): The Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a simple graphical indicator that can be used to analyse remote sensing measurements, often from a space platform, assessing whether or not the target being observed contains live green vegetation.

Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI): Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI) is a remote sensing-derived index related to liquid water, used to monitor changes in water content of leaves, using near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) wavelengths.

Redundancy: Redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention to increase the reliability of the system, usually in the form of a backup or fail-safe, or to improve actual system performance, such as in the case of computer network cables.

Robot: A robot is a machine especially one programmable by a computer capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.

Savings digital solutions: These are digital agricultural solutions that provide accessible avenues to farmers to provide access to savings.

Sensor: Sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send the information to other electronics, frequently a computer processor.

Smart farming digital solutions: The solutions in this classification use a combination of hardware like drones, sensors, satellites and software to monitor, transmit and preform analyses on data about attributes of crops, livestock, soil and other farming assets.

Submarine cables: Submarine communications cables are cables laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean or sea.

Terrestrial cables: Terrestrial cables are optic fibre cables are laid on land and used to extend connectivity to landlocked countries or urban centres within a country with submarine cable access.

Unstructured supplementary service data (USSD): A global system for mobile (GSM) technology in which a user can send messages between a cell phone and an application programme, including prepaid roaming and mobile chatting, in the network.

Web API: A Web API is an interface which has a set of functions that allows programmers/solution developers to access specific features or data of an application, operating system or other services on the web.

Wireless broad band: Wireless broadband is a telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless internet access or computer networking access over a wide area.

 

The GSMA Mobile Connectivity Index

To assess the current state of the enabling environment for digitalisation in the Commonwealth countries, the study uses the GSMA mobile connectivity index. This specific quantitative measure is chosen because is an input index that in its construction combines other various quantitative indicators that assess the level of infrastructural development, the affordability of handheld devices and broadband connections, the ability of consumers to consume digital solutions and the availability of locally relevant digital content for consumers¹. The table below elaborates the various constituent measures of the GSMA mobile connectivity index.

 

Table A.1: Use of the GSMA mobile connectivity index

 

Constituent assessed enabler	Dimension	Indicator	Original unit of measurement	Data source
Infrastructure	Network coverage	2G Network coverage	Percentage of population covered	International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
		3G Network coverage	Percentage of population covered	GSMA intelligence
		4G Network coverage	Percentage of population covered	GSMA intelligence
		5G network coverage	Percentage of population covered	GSMA intelligence
	Network performance	Mobile download speeds	Megabytes per second	Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence
		Mobile upload speeds	Megabytes per second	Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence
		Latencies	Milliseconds	Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence
	Other enabling infrastructure	International bandwidth per user	Bits per second	ITU (International Telecommunication Union)
		Number of secure servers	Secure servers per 1 million people	World Bank
		Access to electricity	percentage of population access	World Bank
		Number of Internet exchange points (IXPs)	IXPs per 10 million people	Packet Clearing House
	Spectrum (b)	Digital dividend spectrum (a)	Megahertz per operator	GSMA Intelligence
		Other spectrum below 1GHz	Megahertz per operator	GSMA Intelligence
		Spectrum in bands 1–3 GHz	Megahertz per operator	GSMA Intelligence
		Spectrum in bands above 3 GHz ©	Megahertz per operator	GSMA Intelligence
Content and Services	Local relevance	Top-level Domains (TLDs) per capita (h)	Number of domains per person	ZookNIC
		e-Government services (i)	Index value (0–1)	UN
		Mobile social media penetration	Percentage of the population	We Are Social
		Mobile application development	Number of active mobile apps developed per person	Appfigures
	Availability	Number of apps in national language	Number of mobile apps available in national language(s)	Appfigures, Ethnologue and GSMA Intelligence
		Accessibility of top-ranked apps	Average of the percentage of population that can use each app in the top 400 for the country	Appfigures, Ethnologue and GSMA Intelligence
	Online security	Global Cybersecurity Index	Index value (0–1)	ITU
Affordability	Mobile tariffs	Cost of 100MB	percentage of monthly GDP per capita	Tarifica
		Cost of 500MB	percentage of monthly GDP per capita	Tarifica and ITU
		Cost of 1GB	percentage of monthly GDP per capita	Tarifica
		Cost of 5GB	percentage of monthly GDP per capita	Tarifica
	Handset price	Cost of entry-level internet-enabled handset	percentage of monthly GDP per capita	Tarifica
	Inequality	Inequality in income, Atkinson measure	Index value (0–100)	UN
	Taxation	Cost of taxation	Cost of tax as a percentage of TCMO (d)	GSMA Intelligence
Cost of mobile-specific taxation	Cost of mobile-specific taxes as a percentage of TCMO	GSMA Intelligence
Consumer Readiness	Basic skills	Adult literacy rate	percentage of literate adult population (above 15 years old)	UN
		School life expectancy (e)	Years	UN
		Mean years of schooling (f)	Years	UN
		Tertiary enrolment rate	percentage	UN
	Gender equality (g)	Gender years of schooling ratio	Female/male ratio	UN
		Gender account access ratio	Female/male ratio	World Bank Global Findex
		Gender Gross National Income (GNI) per capita ratio	Female/male ratio	UN
		Women, Business and the Law Index I	Index value (0–100)	WBL
		Gender gap ratio for social media use	Female/male ratio	We are Social and Facebook Audience Insights
		Gender gap ratio for mobile phone ownership	Female/male ratio	GSMA Intelligence and Gallup World Poll
	Mobile ownership	Penetration of mobile users	Percentage of the population	GSMA Intelligence

 

 

Source: GSMA (2020) Methodology Mobile Connectivity Index.

Technical limitations of the use of the GSMA mobile connectivity index

The GSMA index at its core is a quantitative measure for both technologies, and non-technology-related enablers of the consumption of mobile broadband using mobile devices. This paper, however, uses it to access enabling environments for the digitalisation of agriculture in Commonwealth countries. This is primarily because, for most of the Commonwealth countries, the mobile device is a primary access medium for consumption and digital agriculture solutions.

It should however be noted that not all digital agriculture solutions deployed in the Commonwealth have mobile devices as their primary access mediums. Many solutions deployed are reliant on desktop software, optical sensors, UAV and other Internet of Things appliances. The index however does not take into consideration technical and non-technical factors that affect the use of search services.

 

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