Digital Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Shiri tackles issues of food shortages and distribution with mobile and web applications

At NYU’s CS+Social Good Launch event at the Leslie e-Lab on March 1st, 2019, CDS MS student and entrepreneur Tatenda Ndambakuwa gave an overview of her company, Shiri.

The company aims to connect farmers in Zimbabwe and, eventually, across Sub-Saharan Africa, via sms, mobile, and web applications. In spite of Zimbabwe’s roughly 35 million hectares of land available for agricultural use, the country still suffers from issues arising from a lack of equipment and expertise in farming techniques.

Expanding on these issues, Ndambakuwa explained that issues of food preservation and distribution are also primary reasons that people in Zimbabwe experience starvation. During her presentation, Ndambakuwa underscored the importance of peer-to-peer communication in farming outcomes, as well as the need to observe a strict time frame so food is consumed before becoming rotten.

Shiri’s goals rest upon connecting farmers in order to share, plan, talk, and trade. It is through these communications that Ndambakuwa believes farmers could have a unified platform through which they may begin to combat lack of market information, post-harvest spoilage, and low agricultural productivity.

By Sabrina de Silva