This hyperlocal weather forecast mobile delivery service is helping farmer improve harvests

folarin okunola

July 26, 2016 3:45 PM

The Iska platform is created by Sweden-based company Ignitia, and it came second in the first Agricultural Innovation Investment Summit run by the USAID in Washington, DC in June.

Farmer

In Africa, about 95% of all food production is dependent on rain-fed agriculture which means that any changes in rainfall patterns could be catastrophic for the food security of millions of people on the continent.

To help farmers in this regard, Iska, a hyperlocal weather forecast mobile delivery service, is helping them determine when to plant, add fertilizer, and harvest crops.

The Iska platform is created by Sweden-based company Ignitia, and it came second in the first Agricultural Innovation Investment Summit run by the USAID in Washington, DC in June.

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The service has already been piloted in six countries - Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. In all of those countries, farmers have been receiving localized weather forecasts specific to their GPS locations and they can use that information to plan their crop management activities.

“Using the forecasts more than doubled my yield last year," says Enoch Addo, one of the farmers that have benefitted from the service, according to iAfrikan.

At this moment, Ignitia hopes to expand into other West African countries using a $2.5 million grant from Securing Water for Food challenge, which is funded by the governments of the US, Sweden, South Africa, and the Netherlands.

Good things await.

folarin okunola