On 21 August 2025—at the margins of the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9)—NEC Corporation and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) took a pioneering step. They inked a letter of intent to bring cutting-edge digital tools to the heart of African agriculture.
NEC Corporation—renowned for its leadership in IT and network integration—and IFAD—a global United Nations agency dedicated to rural development—are joining forces to custom-design remote sensing technologies and secure digital platforms. These tools are specifically aimed at supporting small-scale producers, the backbone of African food systems, who often lack access to timely information, market linkages, financial services, and resilient infrastructure.
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Smart Tools for Real Challenges
Two key tools will form the vanguard of this initiative:
- CropScope: NEC’s digital agriculture platform combines remote sensing, data analytics, and real-time insights to support precision farming. It is designed to strengthen decision-making across farm management and value chains—empowering ministries, development agencies, and farmer groups under IFAD’s umbrella.
- e-Voucher System: A modern electronic voucher system that streamlines access to agricultural inputs and subsidies. It ensures these are delivered efficiently and equitably to deserving smallholder farmers, improving targeting and reducing wastage.
This digital tandem is exactly what’s needed to modernise agricultural systems, especially for those who operate on a small scale but feed millions.
Voices at the Forefront
Alvaro Lario, President of IFAD, beamed optimism about the partnership: “We are excited to partner with NEC to implement solutions that integrate digital technologies into agricultural value chains. Scaling up digital public infrastructure with scalable digital services for rural development is key to boosting rural economies, creating new opportunities and raising incomes for millions of vulnerable producers.” He added that addressing these persistent challenges is critical for achieving rural transformation—a core IFAD objective.
Shigehiro Tanaka, Corporate Senior Executive Vice President at NEC, shared similar enthusiasm: “We are pleased to deepen our collaboration with IFAD toward the development of the African region through NEC’s strengths in digital agricultural solutions. At TICAD 9, the active adoption of digital technologies by Japanese companies is being discussed as a key solution to the challenges faced by African countries. We believe that the initiatives under this Letter of Intent directly reflect TICAD 9’s objectives, and we look forward to further strengthening the partnership between IFAD and NEC through this opportunity.”
Their words emphasise not just technology, but inclusive development—making sure marginalised farmers are front and centre.
Connecting Strategy with Sustainable Impact
This collaboration aligns neatly with IFAD’s long-term strategy. NEC’s innovations advance IFAD’s ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) Strategy for 2020–2030, which calls for scalable digital solutions, private-sector engagement, knowledge sharing, and stronger organisational capacity for digital development.
Through this pilot:
- IFAD and NEC hope to accelerate digital transformation across all of IFAD’s projects.
- They aim to test and refine cost-effective digital tools, with a view to replicating them across Africa.
- Enhanced monitoring, targeting, and adaptive management of rural programmes will become possible with real-time data.
- Ultimately, these efforts aim to empower rural communities, increase resilience to climate and market shocks, and open new economic avenues—especially for the most vulnerable households.
A Human-Centred Vision for Tomorrow’s Fields
For many African farmers, especially women and young smallholders, this initiative could be life-changing. CropScope might mean access to weather-adjusted planting advice; the e-Voucher system could guarantee the timely delivery of seeds and fertiliser, without corruption or delay. Farmers may start to see their fields as living laboratories, not just subsistence plots.
By blending NEC’s technological strength with IFAD’s deep development experience and local presence across rural Africa, the partnership is positioned not only to digitise farms, but to sustain lifelines—food, income, security—for millions.
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