LEVERAGING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO IMPROVE FOOD SYSTEM POLICY FRAMEWORKS AND STRATEGIES IN AFRICA

Africa consistently faces policy challenges in all sectors, including its key sector, the food system. Existing challenges intertwine, making policy implementation challenging and necessitating improved regional cooperation and innovative solutions that transcend traditional approaches. This conceptual article examines how AI can be leveraged to enhance Africa's food system policy frameworks and strategies, identifies the challenges of leveraging AI to improve food system policies and strategies, and proposes pathways to strengthen the AI presence in food system adoption and policy-making. The article draws on existing literature as well as personal insights to explore how AI can enhance food systems policymaking in Africa. It reveals that AI holds transformative potential for improving food system policies in Africa by enhancing efficiency, productivity, and resilience across the entire agricultural value chain. By leveraging data-driven insights, AI can help policy-makers and farmers make more informed, timely, and localised decisions. However, poor digital infrastructure, high costs, data gaps, low digital literacy, lack of skilled AI experts, weak regulations, and governance issues, as well as cultural barriers, often combine to create a digital divide, where smallholders are left behind, hindering effective policy implementation and equitable benefits, despite AI’s potential for efficiency and sustainability. Efforts should be directed at bridging the digital divide.