AgriGO:Using technology to help farmers to fight against climate change by SHIKAMA Dioscore,MUHIRE J.M.V
Pitch
We need to provide to farmers the farming bests practices based on agricultural weather information in form of SMS via their mobile phones
Description
Summary
In africa over 70 percent of population are working in agriculture where the rate of population are increasing in high rate.in addition to lack of necessary information on best farming practice and necessary capital to invest in agriculture,farming activities are facing many challenges like climate change and is here AgriGO is here to help farmers to work that problem.
AgriGO is an online platform that has two part:AgriGO Web and griGO USSD.
AgriGO WEB part are used by those entity that deal with many farmers like cooperatives,farming association or farming company by linking to them via USSD part used by farmers using computer.
the last one are working using short code currently here in Rwanda we use *950# to access it on mobile phones.here we are focusing on planning agriculture based to weather information and farming practices based to environmental protection and to climate change where the agriculture weather forecast information are sent to farmers before starting a season and the best practices are provided to farmers via their mobile phones.
This content of best practices are based on soil information seeds requirement and finally the reminding message are sent to farmers according to update of weather information in that region.we need to work with different organization deal with climate updates across the word where here in Rwanda we work with Rwanda meteorological center which provide us the updates on weather information that have an effect on agriculture
Our solution can help small holder farmers to produce more and to adapt working in pressure of climate change for ensuring food security
What actions do you propose?
In farming practice inefficient use of chemical fertilizers contribute to soil degradation and depletion so here AgriGO are working on Physical action that will include better farming practices where we need to launch the soil testing tool as a device that will provide the soil testing services in the community and help farmers to know the current composition of soil in terms of soil nutrients and to budget the quantity to supply compared to the seeds need.so all advisory content will be based on soil testing at the end farming method that are in line with soil protection will be provided to farmers via their mobile phones
Who will take these actions?
Our key actors are
Farmers association or cooperatives
at the level of cooperatives or association they will use our platform to records the names of farmers who work under the association or cooperative name and all advisory content will be sent to the mobile phones of farmers in the name of his or her association or cooperative( Customized SMS)
Farming companies
The farming company will be able to provide to their beneficiaries (farmers) the best practices that are in line with farming environment protection
individual farmers
will be able to benefit from our application the weather information that can help him or her to plan his farming activities
all this actions will be realized by working with different organization that deal with weather forecast like example of Rwanda meteorological center in our country(government entity).at the end we will work with any organizations that can play roles in dissemination of information that can play role in improving climate change.
Where will these actions be taken?
AgriGO are currently working in Rwanda where we work with farmers especially those who belong in cooperatives so for here we customized farming practices that are prepared at the level of cooperatives and we put in SMS format in order to sent it to the mobile phones of their members.and we hope to expand the project globally especially in where climate change affect significantly the farming activities
What are other key benefits?
Our solution is in line with Job creation where different cooperatives are hiring managers to use our application and different agents will get jobs for providing the soil testing services to their community and the solution will improve the sustainability of the the soil use including increasing production which will end by fighting against food security
What are the proposal’s costs?
Phase 1
Project development costs in six months
Platform developer( 3):1000$/One
Agronomist/team and customer Advisor (1):1000/Month
Board director(2):1200$/Month
Rent office:250$/Month
Electricity 60$/Month
Airtime 20$/Month
Total:21180$/6 Month
Phase 2
Project testing in one season (6 month)
Marketing services (4 agents) :1000$/One in one month
Transport:300$ /Month
Restaurant:300$/Month
Hotel:900$/Month
Advertisement :2000$/Month
Call center :2000/Month
Cost of production in 6 Month=cost of software development+Cost of Software testing=21180+57000=78180$
Time line
Between 5 to 15 years this project will be based in eastern African country where it will enhance IT solutions in farming and especially dealing with climate change concerned with agriculture
Between 15 to 50 years this project will be focused on Scalability of our action all over the word especially in Africa where climate change affect mostly agriculture sector
Between 50-100 years this project will have its own meteorological centers across the world which will be work on worldwide climate updates that are affecting agriculture sector
Related proposals
There is no such proposal that are related to ours
References
for more information on our project you can visit our websitewww.agrigo.rwwhich is an online platform that are used by different entities to access on our services
By:
SHIKAMA Dioscore,MUHIRE J.M.V
