PrAEctiCe, an organisation that helps smallholder farmers in their agroecological transition, has developed a decision support tool to assist farmers and agroecology advisors in making informed decisions at the farm level in Nigeria.
The farmers’ mobile application provides farmers with all the necessary information needed to take appropriate actions regarding the current farm conditions, as well as ease communication with advisors.
Its main features include access to the latest data insights and alerts on the farm, crop and fish data development and general farm information through questionnaires.
“A monitoring system installation is required at the farm gate. These systems will provide real-time data monitoring and analysis of key parameters such as water quality, soil conditions and crop health to farmers and advisors,” said Margherita Trestini, general manager of Apodissi, in a statement.
The advisor’s application focuses on technical roles and supports data collection from sensors monitoring soil and water parameters. It includes an interactive map that displays farm locations and infrastructure, along with tools for indicator monitoring and visualisation to aid decision-making.
They are responsible for creating and managing indicators and alerts based on sensor and field data, ensuring accurate insights for farmers and providing clear, actionable solutions when critical issues arise.
“Advisors play a key role in creating and managing indicators based on real-world measurements, while farmers use these insights to take timely and informed actions,” added Trestini.
The Horizon Europe project, funded by the European Union, developed these tools using a co-creation approach that involved key AE stakeholders throughout the process.
“Early on in the project, specific frameworks were identified in the development of these indicators — barriers and drivers for the AE transition in East Africa, adjustment of indicators that reflect the characteristics of the different agricultural zones and climate conditions in East Africa,” the statement read further.
It added that, “Expansion of the indicator framework and climate change mitigation and adaptation impacts, as well as financial viability of smallholder farms.”
The statement noted that, based on these results, data were processed and refined using expert input from both within and outside the consortium.
It highlighted that these results were then used in the development of the decision support tool with refinements incorporating user perspectives to improve system efficiency, performance and visual analytics.
