Digital platforms or digital divide? Who really benefits from agri-tech in South Africa

By Zanele Mokoena

While Nedbank Commercial Banking touts digital tools as the future of South African farming, the reality for black smallholder farmers tells a more complicated story. The bank's senior manager for agribusiness, Desry Lesele, claims that mobile phones and internet access are nearly universal. But for the millions of black farmers still grappling with the legacy of land dispossession and apartheid-era exclusion, technology alone cannot fix what colonialism broke.

Lesele points to World Bank data showing that almost 80% of South Africans have internet access. Yet this statistic masks deep racial and geographic inequalities. In rural townships and former homelands, where most black farmers operate, connectivity remains patchy and expensive. The digital revolution Lesele describes is real, but it is happening primarily for white commercial farmers who already own land, have access to capital, and can afford the latest tools.

What digital tools are actually doing for South African farmers

According to Lesele, platforms like PrysWys allow farmers to compare prices, order inputs, and access financing in one place. The Nedbank partnership with PrysWys has seen an 80% increase in users since its launch in May 2025. But who are these users? The bank does not break down the data by race or farm size. Without that transparency, we cannot assume that black smallholders are the ones benefiting.

The Food and Agriculture Organization notes that digital adoption is driven by pressure to improve productivity amid rising costs and climate volatility. These pressures hit black farmers hardest. They face higher input costs, less access to credit, and greater vulnerability to weather shocks. A digital platform that requires a smartphone, data, and digital literacy may simply add another barrier for those already excluded from the formal agricultural economy.

Is technology really closing the gap or widening it?

Lesele argues that digital tools improve price transparency and market access. But transparency is meaningless if you cannot afford the inputs in the first place. The real gap in South African agriculture is not digital. It is structural. Black farmers were systematically denied land, credit, and training under apartheid. Those wounds have not healed. A smartphone cannot replace a title deed.

The bank frames its platform as a way to embed finance directly into purchasing decisions. That sounds convenient. But for farmers who have been denied loans because they lack collateral or formal credit histories, the problem is not the process. It is the system. Digital finance risks reinforcing the same exclusion if it does not address the underlying power imbalances in the agricultural value chain.

What needs to change for digital agriculture to serve black farmers

If Nedbank and other financial institutions are serious about transformation, they must do more than digitize existing inequalities. They need to invest in infrastructure in rural black communities, offer affordable data plans, and provide training in digital literacy. They should also partner with black-owned input suppliers and cooperatives, not just established white-owned agribusinesses.

The bank's own data shows that only 26% of smallholder farmers were using digital technologies in earlier research. That number is rising, but slowly. Without deliberate policy interventions, the digital divide will mirror the land divide. Technology is not neutral. It reflects the power structures that create it.

South Africa's agricultural future cannot be built on platforms that serve only the privileged. We need a digital revolution that prioritizes the most marginalized. That means putting land reform, credit access, and community ownership at the center of the conversation. Until then, agri-tech is just another tool for maintaining the status quo.