By Abbas Nazil
Orange is advancing digital technologies to support carbon farming in Africa, positioning agriculture as a powerful tool to fight climate change while creating new income opportunities for millions of small-scale producers.
The company says carbon farming, supported by artificial intelligence, satellite imagery and digital advisory services, could help African agriculture reduce emissions, improve soil health and unlock access to carbon markets.
Since 2014, Orange has worked with farmers across Africa through digital platforms that provide agricultural advice, farm management tools and market access, aiming to boost productivity and strengthen farmers’ positions in value chains.
Building on this experience, Orange’s research teams are now exploring how the same digital tools can accelerate carbon farming adoption across the continent.
Carbon farming focuses on regenerative agricultural practices that reduce carbon dioxide emissions while increasing the amount of carbon stored in soils.
Unlike intensive farming systems that degrade soil and reduce its ability to store carbon, carbon farming restores soil vitality and enhances its role as a natural carbon sink.
Key practices include no-till farming, permanent soil cover through intercropping or cover crops, and crop rotation to avoid monoculture systems.
These practices also improve water quality, protect biodiversity and strengthen resilience to climate change.
Africa’s agriculture sector employs more than half of the continent’s workforce and contributes around 15 percent of gross domestic product, yet faces growing threats from climate change, soil degradation and limited access to finance.
Carbon farming offers a pathway to address these challenges while creating new revenue streams for smallholder farmers.
Through payment for environmental services, farmers can be financially rewarded for adopting practices that sequester carbon and improve ecosystems.
This compensation is linked to voluntary carbon markets, where companies purchase carbon credits to offset unavoidable emissions.
While carbon offsetting does not erase a company’s environmental footprint, it supports climate mitigation projects and rural development.
However, trust and transparency remain major barriers in carbon markets due to past cases of fraud and weak verification systems.
To address this, international efforts are underway to strengthen monitoring, reporting and verification standards.
Orange’s research focuses on developing low-cost, reliable tools to measure soil carbon using satellite images and artificial intelligence.
Through partnerships with research institutions and agronomists, Orange aims to estimate biomass and carbon sequestration potential accurately at farm level.
Projects such as ZitApp in Tunisia demonstrate how AI-powered satellite analysis can deliver practical advice to farmers through simple digital applications.
The same technology could be adapted to assess carbon storage potential across African farms.
Orange’s objective by 2026 is to provide African producers with accessible digital services that support sustainable farming while enabling participation in carbon markets.
The company believes carbon farming, supported by digital innovation, can drive more resilient agriculture, improve livelihoods and contribute meaningfully to global climate goals.
