{"id":882435,"date":"2022-10-06T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-blog-post&#038;p=882435"},"modified":"2022-10-12T08:54:46","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T15:54:46","slug":"farmvibes-bot","status":"publish","type":"msr-blog-post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/articles\/farmvibes-bot\/","title":{"rendered":"FarmVibes.Bot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 id=\"using-chat-bots-to-connect-with-the-farmer-either-to-query-data-or-relay-insights\">Using chat bots to connect with the farmer, either to query data or relay insights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1400\" height=\"788\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788.jpg\" alt=\"FarmVibes - graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message\" class=\"wp-image-882228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-1066x600.jpg 1066w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-655x368.jpg 655w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-343x193.jpg 343w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-240x135.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-960x540.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/09\/farmvibes-bot_1400x788-1280x720.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the key challenges, especially for smallholder farmers, is how to communicate with the farmer. This is needed to get additional data, run surveys, and to communicate insights and feedback. We are building tools to automate the entire process.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The FarmVibes.Bot platform allows organizations to communicate simply and effectively with any user who has a feature phone (by USSD or SMS) or any user who has a smart phone (WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, etc.).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organizations can disseminate information, collect field data, and connect users to services. The platform also enables the platform owner to connect to external APIs to crowd in services for the user (e.g., financing, insurance, access to markets, or account information). And, built in data visualization enables a detailed understanding of interactions and activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is in use by more than 500K farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/7CMamLRCyp0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Watch the AGRA video ><span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africaoutlookmag.com\/magazine\/issues\/96-africa-outlook-issue-98-sep-22\/14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the Africa Outlook story ><span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/en-xm\/2022\/05\/27\/agra-and-microsoft-extend-their-partnership-to-support-digital-agricultural-transformation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the Microsoft News Center article ><span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/en-xm\/2022\/05\/27\/agra-and-microsoft-extend-their-partnership-to-support-digital-agricultural-transformation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the Microsoft Africa blog ><span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Note: <strong>FarmVibes.Bot<\/strong> will be released to GitHub soon.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FarmVibes.Bot platform allows organizations to communicate simply and effectively with any user who has a feature phone (by USSD or SMS) or any user who has a smart phone (WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, etc.).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40306,"featured_media":882228,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-content-parent":881235,"footnotes":""},"research-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"class_list":["post-882435","msr-blog-post","type-msr-blog-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_assoc_parent":{"id":881235,"type":"project"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/882435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-blog-post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40306"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/882435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":885450,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-blog-post\/882435\/revisions\/885450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=882435"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=882435"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=882435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}