How Can Digitalization Ease the Plight of Southeast Asia’s Smallholder Farmers?

By Eco-Business

What if rural, smallholder farmers in Asia could harness the power of digital technology to access solutions that were previously within each of only wealthy, large-scale farmers and agribusiness corporations?

Their laborious work supporting the global production of food and other consumer products would be more productive and profitable, and make farming, a waning profession in Asia, more attractive to young people, according to Paul Voutier, director for knowledge and innovation at Grow Asia, a Singapore-based, multi-stakeholder partnership platform that seeks to improve farmer livelihoods.

In Africa and Asia, smallholder farmers make up the backbone of developing economies, reportedly providing over 70 per cent of the food consumed globally, reports Zafirah Zein for Eco-Business. However, they remain some of the poorest people in the world, due to physical and financial barriers such as low productivity, land insecurity and a lack of access to information and finance.

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