Abstract
Smart agricultural technologies are required to advance the development, productivity, and sustainability of the crop and livestock value chains. Several steps are required to fully deploy novel agricultural technologies to millions of smallholder farmers and assist countries in southern Africa to attain the United Nation sustainable development goals on combating climate change and its impacts through climate smart solutions (Goal 13), eradication of poverty and hunger (Goal 1 and 2), creation of decent jobs (Goal 8), environmental protection (Goal 6 and 12), and provision of health (Goal 3) through agricultural enterprises. In reaching out to farmers with suitable technical agricultural interventions we advocate for the integration of knowledge on improved practices, bringing together a suite of technologies, effective institutional rearrangements of stakeholders on value chains, improved information management, and dissemination techniques. Proper targeting of marginalized groups with potential for growth, use of decision support tools to maintain the farm yield projections, and lobbying for a policy framework that is supportive of all the facets are imminent. Climate smart technologies will play a critical role in guiding the trajectory of cropping systems productivity, increasing sustainability, and reducing the risk of widespread hunger in most countries in southern Africa.
