Tunis gets a new conference on modernizing African agriculture

A new seminar was organized in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia on October 29 by the African Development Bank. The objective of the seminar was to complete the pilot project on the use of drones to improve agricultural productivity in the region of Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia.

The meeting was intended to share with nearly 150 participants from the public and private sectors, the knowledge and best practices from the introduction of drones, in the preparation, supervision and evaluation of agricultural projects.

“This pilot project will truly increase the capacity of African agriculture, which can now cope with ever greater challenges in a more efficient and effective way. The Bank is determined that this successful cooperation with Tunisia and South Korea will benefit the rest of the continent,” Yacine Diama Fal, Deputy Director General of the African Development Bank for the North Africa Region opined.

“The utilization of new technologies with drone deployment is an important turning point for African agriculture". And to add that "the results obtained in Tunisia are very encouraging because it is now possible to accurately anticipate the level of agricultural production and significantly strengthen the resilience of crops in the face of climatic hazards,” the African Development Bank’s Senior Special Advisor on Industrialization, Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka said.

In association with the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, the African Development Bank initiated the operation. An operation which, thanks to the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Fund (KOAFEC), has enabled the Bank to mobilize the resources and technologies necessary for the success of this tripartite cooperation.

The implementation of this pilot project was thus entrusted to Busan Techno Park, a South Korean government agency with proven experience in the use of drones. South Korea is one of the world leaders in the development of UAVs for real-time data collection and processing. “Thanks to this project, Tunisia is entering fully into the era of the 4 th industrial revolution. It is a success for Tunisia and for the whole African continent. And that is why we will, with our partners, South Korea and the African Development Bank, launch a regional center of excellence for the training of new drone pilots,” Samir Taieb, Tunisian Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries said.