LEVERAGING SATELLITE NAVIGATION AND EARTH OBSERVATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY AND FOOD SECURITY

Agriculture represents around 15% of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs two thirds of its population and thus, a critical market in African economy. With the downturn of the black gold (oil) market in 21st century and the rapid progress made in the green energy sector and most importantly, food insecurity across the nation, there is an urgent need to exploit the agricultural sector as a pillar of Nigeria’s industrial/agro economy, with the aim of speeding up the development of modern and novel agricultural practices in Nigeria. This is expected to secure the economic health of Nigeria, which is expected, by the United Nations, to have the 3rd largest population in the world by 2045. The paper employs a comprehensive review of the technical foundations of Satellite Navigation (SatNav) comprising of GNSS & SBAS and Earth Observation (EO), the huge opportunity it presents for precision agriculture, application and case studies of yield value over traditional practices, NIGCOMSAT-1R Navigation Overlay Service (NOS) potentials, Livestock Management System including challenges among others. Precision agricultural practice with GNSS and/or SBAS via NIGCOMSAT-1R; Nigerian owned hybrid Communications Satellite with Navigation Overlay Service (NOS) and Earth Observation (EO) will improve and optimize crop yields and productivity, timely management of activities such as weed control, fertilizer application and harvest periods saving costs of inputs for both commercial and small scale farmers in Africa, high yield of dairy and meat production through livestock tracking, guidance and virtual fencing among other cost savings and environmental impact reduction measures. Key recommendation to fast track adoption and technology validation at scale is demonstration with farm sites in practice to facilitate a new dawn of not just being a consumer but playing an important role of being producer of agricultural produce efficiently and sufficiently to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030 in the continent in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2- Zero Poverty Agenda) to which African Governments are committed to.