Robots attract young farmers in Cote d'Ivoire

In Cote d'Ivoire, farming is important. It's necessary for the country's economy. But these days, young people don't want to farm. Farming's a difficult job and the pay's bad too.

Now, there's a new technology competition. It's in the city of Abidjan. It's hoping to bring young people back to farming. Young people take part and they use robots and AI. The competition makes farming look modern and interesting. And it can help farms too.

Pele Ouattara: "I come from a family of farmers. My passion for robotics has actually added to my desire to improve the conditions in which my parents used to farm."

The main problem is the cost. A small drone for putting pesticides on a field costs around U$16,000. That's expensive for a small farm.

Luckily, farmers can now just rent equipment like drones. Small businesses rent them to farmers. This farmer's surprised by the drone. It did the job so fast.

Faustin Zongo: "Usually, it takes at least two days to cover one hectare. So with the drone, I see that we have sprayed 5 hectares. I don't know how long it took, but it was no more than two hours."

The government's building a centre to make farming technology. This will bring prices down. And some small companies are helping farmers with AI too. AI can give farmers useful information.

The changes are working. Young people are returning to farming.

Nozene Ble Binate: "There are more and more young people returning to the land and who are interested - who come to us to use, to request the drone for their fields because they've realised that the real treasure lies in the land." View Less