QUALITY vs. MARKET availability Which one comes FIRST?

Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating soil, growing crops, and raising livestock. It is the backbone of most countries' economies dominated by 33 million small-scale farmers contributing 70% of the food supply in Africa. Despite the high % of African smallholder farmers, poverty is still a close neighbor to the countries with the most productive lands and natural resources. Why is this happening? The response from the farmers will be that:

1. They lack "MARKET " to sell their produce,
2. Unpredictable weather patterns
3. Little knowledge of basic crop management."MARKET "What will lead to a lack of market to sell produce in a continent grappling with sustainable food security? As a farmer targeting a particular nitch in the production chain, what makes your produce stand out amongst the rest is QUALITY. Quality in simple terms is a perception of satisfaction with standards, this can be post-harvest or pre-harvest quality. The quality of fresh fruits and vegetables is based on the following factors :

1. Appearance - These are visual traits such as color, shape, and form

1. Texture -includes feeling such firmness, softness, hardness
2. Flavor -taste and smell attributes vary with each type of fruit and vegetable i.e. acidity, sourness, sweetness

4. Safety - are their contaminants i.e. heavy metals, mycotoxins, microbial contaminants.

5. Nutritional value -the produce rich in lipids, proteins, vitamins, and carbohydrates as is supposed to be.

To produce a quality crop, you must first understand the crop growing cycle and phases to execute the management practices better. African small-holder farmers produce for the MARKET but is their QUALITY marketable on its own? And if not what needs to be done as professionals in the various fields directly linked with Agriculture, is it digitalizing Agriculture? Does digitizing agriculture only collect data in Africa? or get closer to sustainable food production mechanisms?