watch the device relay data in realtime to a dashboard
Agrarian is a customer-centred, data-driven platform that keeps track of farmland conditions and educates the farmer on optimum farming inputs and crops to cultivate for optimum and quality produce remotely and in real-time. We achieve this by providing integrated low-power sensors that collect data from the farm, that is used to educate the farmer via their mobile phone. By doing this we seek to:
Increase overall yields for smallholder farmers by using data to optimise the use of farmers resources such as fertiliser and water.Educate farmers on the best crops to grow in a particular season by providing e-extension services to minimise risk.
Africa has untapped agricultural potential that can make it the bread basket of the world. With its warm climate, good soils and 25% of the world’s agricultural land, it is ripe for agriculture. According to the World Bank, 51% of the GDP of Kenya is directly and indirectly dependent on agriculture. Out of the 75% of the population in farming, 78% have less than 2 hectares of land. This makes smallholder farmers the backbone of the economy.
However, many of these farmers in Africa are using traditional methods of farming that are rain-fed and use little to no fertiliser. This has led to low productivity and food insecurity in many African states, where Kenya is no exception.
In order to overcome the challenges the farmers face, education and guidance on the latest trends in farming is an important aspect. The Ministry of Agriculture provides the national extension and advisory service that caters to the needs of farmers. However, these services have been overwhelmed as there are approximately 5470 extension officers for the 4.5 to 6.9 million smallholder farmers. Based on this, extension officers can only focus their efforts on well-endowed and productive areas like Nakuru.
Private extension has come up over the years to fill in this gap. Although it has helped to disseminate information to farmers, many of them use the same top-down approach of relaying research from institutions to the farmer, through an extension officer visit. In doing so, physical visits will be quite limited, with one visit a month. The consultation can also be costly at 150 shs a visit at Mazao Safi Extension and Advisory.
To bring extension services to smallholder farmers, it is necessary to have both a good presence on their farm but to do it in a scalable manner. By using technologies like the mobile phone, cloud computing and sensors on the farm, the farmer can get guidelines on how to improve their farming as if an extension officer was present. With Agrarian, we have developed a device that collects data from the farm like soil moisture, atmospheric temperature and humidity, and light intensity. This information is sent to the cloud, where it is analysed using data analytics to make sense of the data. The analysis is sent to the farmer on their mobile phone via a website and mobile application.
The Agrarian platform will provide remote extension and advisory of water usage and additional crops that can be grown during a season. With more data, we will combine weather and climate data to predict foresee climatic conditions.
In future, we seek to add Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium sensors that will measure the concentrations of this essential nutrients in the soil. This will allow farmers to use their fertiliser efficiently based on data. It will also be done in real-time without taking any soil samples for testing in a lab but immediate testing on the farm.
We shall also add a new feature that will allow farmers to see the demand of a certain crop and plan for it in advance. By connecting merchant demand to farmer production, farmers can get more revenue from markets that need a certain produce.
Lastly, using the data collected on the farm. Farmers can give an accurate description of what their land is capable of. With their farm rating that is based on past produce, soil fertility and geolocation all in one, they can get a chance at receiving credit from banks and other financial institutions.