Mapping the climate and agronomic digital advisory services landscape in West and Central Africa: A step towards making food systems productive and climate resilient

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0338010 December 3, 2025 2 / 20 1. Introduction The net importer status of many African countries, amidst ongoing global conflicts, food crisis, and climate change, is a growing concern, especially for their rapidly increasing population. Food production in these countries remains consistently below average, with several key challenges impeding their progress. Limited access to resources—inputs (quality seeds, fertilizers, water), agricultural machinery, and credit during the planting season, combined with rainfed farming on a highly frag- mented land holdings—contribute to challenges in farm mechanization and lowered crop production [1–2]. Additional challenges include inadequate disease control and surveillance systems [3], climatic constraints, poor market access due to substandard road infrastructure and insecurity, limited storage and processing facilities, high levels of rural outmigration, and price fluctuations [4]. These challenges are widespread, especially among smallholder farmers. Nevertheless, food system productivity of these smallholder farmers can be increased sustainably by building resilience to the shocks of climate variability. Agri- cultural production resilience requires growing crops under optimal management con- ditions and adopting scientifically recommended agronomic practices to minimize the impact of biotic (pests, diseases) and abiotic (extreme weather) stress. Crops grown under optimal conditions yield well and ensure food security. To manage farms well,

farmers need information on suitable crops, seed rates, irrigation timing, fertilizer schedules, pest control, and market data. Agro-advisories provide these information, along with weather forecast interpretation, supporting effective decision-making. Given the importance of the agricultural sector in the national economy and the increasing challenges faced by farmers, several international organizations have been working to develop digital technologies that provide agronomic and climate advisory services to producers across various value chains. Partnership include the local government, telephone companies, and NGOs. During the past decade, a range of digital tools have been developed to assist and improve the extension services. Specialists design interventions tailored to the needs of different categories of farm- ers. For example, providers offer fertilizer recommendations [5], agronomic package of practices, climate advisory services [6], pest and disease surveillance [7], and other information services through various digital platforms. Mobile phone ownership and internet access play a key role in accessing these platforms and information services. The state of infrastructure development and other requirements for the suc- cessful implementation of digital agricultural services, however, varies across Africa. This synthesis report, therefore, summarizes existing digital agricultural solutions (DAGs) of six countries in West and Central Africa. We assess socio-economic conditions, the state of agriculture, the information and communication technology

infrastructure (if any), the tools available for improving access to financial and insur- ance services, and the user base. Agricultural information services are important in helping farmers to buffer investment, yield, and livelihood losses as a result of climatic shocks. Furthermore, we identified the challenges in implementing DAGs in the region, while also examining key aspects such as user research, the inclusivity of target users in decision-making, and data harmonization and management. The Funding: The work is funded through the CGIAR Trust Fund. https://www.cgiar.org/ funders/trust-fund/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.