An agronomist by training, he is a graduate of the prestigious Université de Laval in Canada. At only 23 years old, the young Ivorian entrepreneur Aboubacar Karim is one of those rare young Africans to focus on the integration of new technologies in agriculture.
He combines agriculture and new technologies to increase farm incomes. The young man created Investiv Group. It is a company specializing in intelligent agriculture in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Investiv maps the fields with precision and allows, thanks to the data collected in the air, to diagnose on the ground, the parts that have produced less or not.
To do so, the company uses drones that go to the plantations. These drones map the plots, and allows to detect the less fertile areas and the less hydrated areas. This method allows the planter to know his land better and to carry out much more thorough treatments and fertilizer weighting. It allows him to make resolutions much more quickly.
The process: after the planning, the preparation on the ground is done and once everything is ready they proceed to the elaboration of a business plan. The plantations are cleaned, treated and analysed. After the mapping, there is the processing of the collected data and a mathematical analysis. Afterwards, a diagnosis is delivered to the farmer.
The idea for the project was born when the young man was still a student. One of the difficulties encountered was related to technology. His concept being a new technology, was not always well received, people were a little reluctant at first.
With this approach, plantations can be mapped much more quickly and the land can be studied. It allows the problem to be detected more quickly.
According to the World Bank, the agricultural sector is a major player in Africa. It alone provides 65% of employment and contributes 35% of GDP.