The role of technology in industrial development is becoming increasingly appreciated. ERP systems implemented in various organisations have not only improved business processes but also boosted revenue of organisations.
Developed countries have recognised the importance of a modernised agriculture industry and have leveraged on technologies like the ERP to gain comparative advantage in the industry and generate massive income revenue for the country.
The agric ERP systems cut across many platforms, bridging the gap between the producers and the final consumers.
The Agric ERP can keep track of planting – cultivation – harvesting – production – marketing history of multiple farmers and farm produce. Land information with scanned photographs and documents can be stored.
This solution maintains farmer database to aid the management in taking critical key decisions based on data available in terms of irrigation, crop cultivation practices, pest and nutrient management, marketing of crops harvested, etc.
The implementation of ERP in agriculture business enterprises is a requirement resulting from the progress of information technology, BIG DATA and economic globalisation.
This is a method of not only improving the business processes in the agriculture industry but also a source of obtaining competitive advantage on the market, which leads to an improved financial situation of the industry.
Analysis shows that there is significant internal variation within the scope of the food production sector with reference to the scope of IT system used in management of agricultural produce.
Due to the influence of ERP systems in obtaining a competitive advantage of enterprises, their implementation is highly recommended for the agriculture sector. Countries are now moving from the small subsistence farming to the industrialised and mechanised form of farming to meet growing population demands.
The benefit of the system will enable farmers to avoid long paper works involved in the supply chain process. It will also increase the revenue of low-end farmer that deals on seed plants.
Benefits of the IT in agriculture sector and recommendations contained in a white paper which was recently published on and Titled: “ERP for Agriculture Sector: transforming big data into big value in the agriculture sector,” informed the decision of Signal Alliance, one of the leading IT companies in Nigeria to come up with proposition for an agro-based ERP solution.
The company suggested using SAP ERP Software running on a smart phone, a local buyer of cashew nuts is able to record single buying transactions. Each bag of cashew nuts is labelled with a barcode. By scanning the bar code on the bags of cashew nuts, the system can track every bag.
The phone collects the data and sends it directly to the farmers’ cooperative. The cooperative controls the daily pricing for cashew nuts and this information is also sent to all buyers’ smart phones
According to Signal Alliance, some notable features of this proposed SAP ERP is that it is suited for small, medium and large farms with facility to manage multiple farms at multiple locations.
Signal Alliance’s SAP consultant, Charles Esumeh, explained that the solution will improve farm producer’s operational efficiency and profit. Agriculture ERP is designed also to help optimise resources, maintain quality and improve staff performance levels.
According to him, production, post production and sales, marketing and accounting are also considered on the ERP solution.
He informed his audience that this solution is to provide an integrated real-time view of core business processes, using common databases maintained by a database management system in the agricultural sector.
Esumeh stated that MyAgri which operates on SAP business intelligence is designed to create automated control of field and production operational activities reducing costs in resources management.
The Signal Alliance SAP consultant also disclosed that the solution will improve flow of products through the processing plants, allowing for much better interaction, adding that the Microsoft Dynamic AX Microsoft Dynamics AX, is designed to build a unified business infrastructure that facilitates an unimpeded flow of information.
He enumerated some of the challenges the local sector is faced with, at the moment, as lack of awareness, marketing process and technology.
Esumeh said: “In Agribusiness, there are strong tendencies towards increasing the role of IT in creating positive value, decreasing costs and ensuring high quality food products to final recipients.”
