Weather-based farm advice now available on your phone
The Rain for Africa Project (R4A) has rolled out the new AgriCloud Application. The AgriCloud Application is a mobile application that provides guidance and advice to maize farmers and extension officers helping them to improve their farm management decisions. The roll-out sessions of the application took place at the beginning of September at ARC-Soil, Climate and Water in Pretoria and in the provinces Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
A guidance for farmers
The AgriCloud Application provides weather-based farm advice for planting and other activities, farm management guidance and crowdsourced weather observations. Advice is given on weather conditions conducive for good spraying in the next 3 days at 6-hourly intervals. This information is based on rainfall received over the previous 10 days and rainfall forecast for the next 10 days.
The AgriCloud Application is available for android phones in 9 languages: Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, Tshivenda and Xitsonga. Extension officers have the possibility to register a number of farmers thereby assisting them in the delivery of information. Similar information is also available to users of GSM mobile phone via a USSD service.
The Rain for Africa Project
The objective of the R4A Project is to empower farmers by providing weather-based advisories to improve food production, thereby ensuring local food security. Information will be accessible via mobile technologies (computers, cell phones and tablets) to facilitate higher crop yields and more efficient use of inputs such as seed, water, pesticides and herbicides.
- Download the AgriCloud Application here.
- Tell me more about the AgriCloud Application.
- Watch the video about the rollout of the AgriCloud Application here.
