AgriAdvisor

Local weather is a major factor impacting the success of 100M+ small-scale farmers in Africa. Weather conditions greatly affect the outcomes of critical on-farm decisions around planting (e.g., what to plant, when to plant) and ongoing crop management (e.g., fertilizer timing and amount, treatment and prevention of pests or diseases). Today, small-scale farmers in Africa produce less food and generate less income because they lack access to both high-quality weather data and the expertise to translate that data into more optimal decisions they could make on their farm.

The goal of this project is to close these two gaps for farmers and the extension agents that support them by building an AI copilot that combines highly localized weather data with generative AI capable of translating the best available agronomic practices into actionable advice. Farmers and extension agents can ask the AI co-pilot any agronomic questions via SMS or WhatsApp, and receive trusted, weather-intelligent guidance in English or Swahili they can act on immediately. We will also create a new data feedback loop, by leveraging the two-way communication between users and our AI Advisor in order to help optimize future AI interactions.

Partners: TomorrowNow.org (opens in new tab), Tomorrow.io (opens in new tab)