Latest news with #Ivorians
Kuwait Times
15-07-2025
- Business
- Kuwait Times
I Coast farmers hope tech tempts jaded youth back to fields
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast: Stopwatch in hand, dozens of Ivory Coast students raced against the clock to design robots for the farms of the future in the world's top cocoa-producing nation. With each team facing off to draw up the best bot blueprint, the competition is part of a broader push to tempt the west African nation's large population of young people, disillusioned with farming life, back to the plough. Though farming has long been the pillar of Ivory Coast's economy, many young Ivorians have turned their backs on fruit-picking and tree-felling, discouraged by the hard labour and the slow pace of progress. 'I come from a family of farmers,' 20-year-old student Pele Ouattara told AFP at the event in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city. 'My passion for robotics grew out of my desire to improve the conditions in which my parents used to farm,' he added. On a rival team several meters away, fellow student Urielle Diaidh, 24, feared that Ivorian farming 'risks dying out with time if modern technologies aren't adopted'. Dominated by the cultivation of cocoa, rubber and cashew nuts, nearly half of Ivorians with jobs work in agriculture in one way or another. Yet the country's farms have been slow to modernize. Less than 30 percent of farms are mechanized, according to the National Centre for Agronomic Research. And although three-quarters of Ivorians are under the age of 35, the sector is struggling to refresh an ageing workforce. Surrounded by a flurry of tiny white robots on their circuit rounds, digital transformation engineer Paul-Marie Ouattara said he has seen 'a real enthusiasm from young people' for bringing agriculture into the 21st century. This 'agriculture 4.0' that the competition wishes to promote is 'improved, enhanced through new technologies, whether they be robots, drones, artificial intelligence, or data processing', the 27-year-old said. All these 'will help the farmer', insisted Ouattara, who works for a private business which sponsored the contest. Young people have not wholly given up on farming, however — just on the old way of tilling the land. At the Ivorian digital transition ministry, Stephane Kounandi Coulibaly, director of innovation and private sector partnerships, said he had seen a boom in agricultural start-ups. Most of them were founded by young people, he added. The 'agritech' trend mirrors that already in motion across the continent, including in Benin, Nigeria and Kenya, with Abidjan hosting a forum for African start-ups at the beginning of July. Ivory Coast's world-leading cocoa growers, who produce 40 percent of the global supply, are also climbing aboard. 'We have noticed the appearance of new technologies since four or five years ago,' said Thibeaut Yoro, secretary-general of the national union of cocoa producers. Yoro hailed how those shiny new gadgets helped lighten a 'strenuous' job still riddled with 'archaic practices'. 'We dig, we hack through the bush, we harvest with machetes,' he said, with planters suffering from 'back aches and fatigue' as a result. 'These are things which could be changed with new technology,' the trade union leader argued. Who can afford those mod cons is another question altogether. A pesticide-spraying drone with a capacity of 20 liters (five US gallons) can cost nine million CFA francs, or around $16,000. That is nine times what the average farmer, owning one hectare (two-and-a-half acres) of cocoa trees, would make in six months. To reduce those costs, out of the reach of most farmers, a number of Ivorian enterprises offering equipment and technology for hire have sprung up. In the verdant countryside outside of Tiassale, around 125 kilometers (78 miles) outside of Abidjan, Faustin Zongo has called in a contractor to spray his field of passion fruit plants with pesticides. Thanks to the drone, the job took 10 minutes per hectare to complete, for the cost of around $27. Using traditional methods, 'it would take two days for each hectare', the farmer said. By his side, Nozene Ble Binate, project manager for Investiv — the company Zongo hired — said that using up-to-date technology made farming 'more attractive'. 'More and more young people are returning to the land and reaching out to us,' the 42-year-old said. Back in Abidjan, Jool has made a business of offering ranchers software-powered analysis of their crops, with prices starting under $100. The start-up's 32-year-old founder, Joseph-Olivier Biley — the son of farmers himself — boasted of his tool's ability to 'know what to plant, where and how' and to 'detect diseases before they strike'. With it, farmers could expect yields 'optimized by more than 40 percent', Biley told AFP at Jool's offices, on the outskirts of the Ivorian economic capital. At the digital transformation ministry, Coulibaly, the innovation chief, said the west African country plans to build a centre for manufacturing state-of-the-art inventions and training farmers in their use. That would mean Ivorian businesses would no longer have to import their technology from abroad, often from China, he added. — AFP
Int'l Business Times
15-07-2025
- Science
- Int'l Business Times
Ivory Coast Farmers Hope Tech Tempts Jaded Youth Back To Fields
Stopwatch in hand, dozens of Ivory Coast students raced against the clock to design robots for the farms of the future in the world's top cocoa-producing nation. With each team facing off to draw up the best bot blueprint, the competition is part of a broader push to tempt the west African nation's large population of young people, disillusioned with farming life, back to the plough. Though farming has long been the pillar of Ivory Coast's economy, many young Ivorians have turned their backs on fruit-picking and tree-felling, discouraged by the hard labour and the slow pace of progress. "I come from a family of farmers," 20-year-old student Pele Ouattara told AFP at the event in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city. "My passion for robotics grew out of my desire to improve the conditions in which my parents used to farm," he added. On a rival team several metres away, fellow student Urielle Diaidh, 24, feared that Ivorian farming "risks dying out with time if modern technologies aren't adopted". Dominated by the cultivation of cocoa, rubber and cashew nuts, nearly half of Ivorians with jobs work in agriculture in one way or another. Yet the country's farms have been slow to modernise. Less than 30 percent of farms are mechanised, according to the National Centre for Agronomic Research. And although three-quarters of Ivorians are under the age of 35, the sector is struggling to refresh an ageing workforce. Surrounded by a flurry of tiny white robots on their circuit rounds, digital transformation engineer Paul-Marie Ouattara said he has seen "a real enthusiasm from young people" for bringing agriculture into the 21st century. This "agriculture 4.0" that the competition wishes to promote is "improved, enhanced through new technologies, whether they be robots, drones, artificial intelligence, or data processing", the 27-year-old said. All these "will help the farmer", insisted Ouattara, who works for a private business which sponsored the contest. Young people have not wholly given up on farming, however -- just on the old way of tilling the land. At the Ivorian digital transition ministry, Stephane Kounandi Coulibaly, director of innovation and private sector partnerships, said he had seen a boom in agricultural start-ups. Most of them were founded by young people, he added. The "agritech" trend mirrors that already in motion across the continent, including in Benin, Nigeria and Kenya, with Abidjan hosting a forum for African start-ups at the beginning of July. Ivory Coast's world-leading cocoa growers, who produce 40 percent of the global supply, are also climbing aboard. "We have noticed the appearance of new technologies since four or five years ago," said Thibeaut Yoro, secretary-general of the national union of cocoa producers. Yoro hailed how those shiny new gadgets helped lighten a "strenuous" job still riddled with "archaic practices". "We dig, we hack through the bush, we harvest with machetes," he said, with planters suffering from "back aches and fatigue" as a result. "These are things which could be changed with new technology," the trade union leader argued. Who can afford those mod cons is another question altogether. A pesticide-spraying drone with a capacity of 20 litres (five US gallons) can cost nine million CFA francs, or around $16,000. That is nine times what the average farmer, owning one hectare (two-and-a-half acres) of cocoa trees, would make in six months. To reduce those costs, out of the reach of most farmers, a number of Ivorian enterprises offering equipment and technology for hire have sprung up. In the verdant countryside outside of Tiassale, around 125 kilometres (78 miles) outside of Abidjan, Faustin Zongo has called in a contractor to spray his field of passion fruit plants with pesticides. Thanks to the drone, the job took 10 minutes per hectare to complete, for the cost of around $27. Using traditional methods, "it would take two days for each hectare", the farmer said. By his side, Nozene Ble Binate, project manager for Investiv -- the company Zongo hired -- said that using up-to-date technology made farming "more attractive". "More and more young people are returning to the land and reaching out to us," the 42-year-old said. Back in Abidjan, Jool has made a business of offering ranchers software-powered analysis of their crops, with prices starting under $100. The start-up's 32-year-old founder, Joseph-Olivier Biley -- the son of farmers himself -- boasted of his tool's ability to "know what to plant, where and how" and to "detect diseases before they strike". With it, farmers could expect yields "optimised by more than 40 percent", Biley told AFP at Jool's offices, on the outskirts of the Ivorian economic capital. At the digital transformation ministry, Coulibaly, the innovation chief, said the west African country plans to build a centre for manufacturing state-of-the-art inventions and training farmers in their use. That would mean Ivorian businesses would no longer have to import their technology from abroad, often from China, he added. A technician prepares a drone that will spray fungicides on passion fruit fields in Ivory Coast AFP A technician prepares a drone to spray fungicides on passion fruit fields AFP
Daily Maverick
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Ivory Coast former minister Billon seeks to lead opposition in October vote
Ivory Coast former trade minister Jean-Louis Billon said he is seeking to represent the opposition PDCI party in October's presidential election after former Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam was excluded from the final list of candidates last week. The question of who will carry the mantle of the main opposition party risks adding to tensions in the world's top cocoa producer, which has a history of election-related violence including a brief civil war after the 2010 presidential contest that killed about 3,000 people. In an interview with Reuters in the commercial capital Abidjan, Billon, 60, blamed party officials for the handling of legal challenges to Thiam's candidacy and did not rule out the possibility of representing another party, though he said it was too early to make such a move. 'I am asking for the PDCI's support,' he said. 'It's a shame that (PDCI) President Thiam was eliminated, but it was the result of the lack of preparation of certain party officials that led to his elimination. That's why you always have to have several strings to your bow, especially when you're in politics.' The electoral commission published its final list of candidates last week, excluding Thiam, who denounced the decision as a sign of the 'abandonment of democracy'. Ivory Coast law states that candidates must be Ivorian citizens and cannot hold another nationality. Thiam renounced his French citizenship in February in order to meet eligibility conditions for the election. But a court in Ivory Coast ruled in April that Thiam should be removed from the electoral roll because he was a French national when he registered. Thiam told Reuters after that decision that he planned to fight on and run anyway. TENSE HISTORY The notion of Ivorian identity was at the heart of past violence in Ivory Coast, and some fear lingering questions over Thiam's nationality in the run-up to the vote risk pushing those tensions back to the surface. Incumbent President Alassane Ouattara himself was barred from seeking the presidency over what opponents said were his foreign origins before he finally won election in 2010. Ouattara, 83, has not said whether he will run again this year. Billon told Reuters that if elected he would endorse a law to lift restrictions on dual nationality. 'You have thousands of Ivorians who live abroad, who have made their lives abroad, and who end up having dual nationality,' he said. Billon also said he would trim the civil service, crack down on corruption, promote private sector investment and move more government offices to Yamoussoukro, the political capital. He said it was time for Ouattara and other politicians of his generation to leave the scene. 'Ivory Coast will change. I think our elders have had their day,' he said.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ivory Coast former minister Billon seeks to lead opposition in October vote
ABIDJAN (Reuters) -Ivory Coast former trade minister Jean-Louis Billon said he is seeking to represent the opposition PDCI party in October's presidential election after former Credit Suisse chief Tidjane Thiam was excluded from the final list of candidates last week. The question of who will carry the mantle of the main opposition party risks adding to tensions in the world's top cocoa producer, which has a history of election-related violence including a brief civil war after the 2010 presidential contest that killed about 3,000 people. In an interview with Reuters in the commercial capital Abidjan, Billon, 60, blamed party officials for the handling of legal challenges to Thiam's candidacy and did not rule out the possibility of representing another party, though he said it was too early to make such a move. "I am asking for the PDCI's support," he said. "It's a shame that (PDCI) President Thiam was eliminated, but it was the result of the lack of preparation of certain party officials that led to his elimination. That's why you always have to have several strings to your bow, especially when you're in politics." The electoral commission published its final list of candidates last week, excluding Thiam, who denounced the decision as a sign of the "abandonment of democracy". Ivory Coast law states that candidates must be Ivorian citizens and cannot hold another nationality. Thiam renounced his French citizenship in February in order to meet eligibility conditions for the election. But a court in Ivory Coast ruled in April that Thiam should be removed from the electoral roll because he was a French national when he registered. Thiam told Reuters after that decision that he planned to fight on and run anyway. TENSE HISTORY The notion of Ivorian identity was at the heart of past violence in Ivory Coast, and some fear lingering questions over Thiam's nationality in the run-up to the vote risk pushing those tensions back to the surface. Incumbent President Alassane Ouattara himself was barred from seeking the presidency over what opponents said were his foreign origins before he finally won election in 2010. Ouattara, 83, has not said whether he will run again this year. Billon told Reuters that if elected he would endorse a law to lift restrictions on dual nationality. "You have thousands of Ivorians who live abroad, who have made their lives abroad, and who end up having dual nationality," he said. Billon also said he would trim the civil service, crack down on corruption, promote private sector investment and move more government offices to Yamoussoukro, the political capital. He said it was time for Ouattara and other politicians of his generation to leave the scene. "Ivory Coast will change. I think our elders have had their day," he said.
Morocco World
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Morocco World
Cote d'Ivoire's President Ouattara Bans Opposition to Consolidate Power
Rabat – Cote d'Ivoire's young democratic journey is backsliding as the incumbent president looks to tighten his grip on a presidency he is no longer supposed to run for. In a move aimed at strengthening his position of power in the Ivorian political makeup, President Alassane Ouattara has banned the most influential presidential candidates from the 2025 election. President Ouattara originally came to power in 2010 after an election against then incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo turned into a civil war, which killed 3000 people. Ouattara changed the constitution in 2016 to allow himself to run for a third term in 2020, and Ivorians fear he will stand again for reelection in 2025. He has also been accused of gradually becoming increasingly autocratic throughout his presidency. A popular opposition figure, particularly among young voters, Tidjane Thiam of the Democratic and Peace Party had been rising quickly in the polls. In addition to being the nephew of the country's first President Houphouet-Boigny, Thiam is widely perceived as experienced and competent to run a country that often prides itself as the economic leader in Francophone West Africa. Disqualifying popular candidates Despite Thiam receiving overwhelming support within his party and his popularity among younger Ivorians, a court blocked his bid to become presidential candidate in April 2025. The court notably cast doubt on Thiam's Ivorian nationality, arguing that his holding of French citizenship made him unreliable as the future leader of a sovereign nation. Thiam has contested what he sees as a political trial, noting that he had renounced his French citizenship long before launching his bid to become president of Cote d'Ivoire. And this week, in a decision that has polarized the West African nation and sent it into crisis, the Independent Electoral Commission announced banning Tidjane Thiam from the electoral list. Even more controversially, the ban applies to three other candidates whose popularity and political influence could prove a headache for President Ouattara's camp in any election: former president Laurent Gbagbo, former youth leader and political organizer Charles Blé Goudé, and former Ouattara acolyte Guillaume Soro. A very dependent electoral commission In a telling sign of political intervention from the presidential camp, the Commission contentiously stated that this list is definitive and would not be revised under any circumstances prior to the October elections. Both independent observers and supporters of the banned presidential hopefuls have accused Ouattara of illegally disqualifying his most formidable opponents to centralize power. Once hailed in the West as the savior of Ivorian democracy, President Ouattara is now roundly denounced by his opponents and some of his former advocates in the Western press as a power-hungry agent of democratic backsliding in the West African nation. Thiam has called on the UN to oppose Ouattara's dictatorial project, arguing that the past few years have seen Cote d'Ivoire 'slide towards a total lack of democracy.' Other candidates are qualified to participate in the coming elections, however. These include former First Lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo and former Minister of Commerce Jean-Louis Billon. But neither of these candidates have the same popular support as Thiam and the other banned contenders. While it is not clear whether the media protestations of the banned candidates will bear any meaningful fruit on the actual political scene, one thing is for certain: this decision means that the October elections will be deeply divisive. Tags: Cote d'Ivoireivory coastOuattarapolitics
