Smart(phone) farming

"Hello, I have a problem. My Chinese cabbage looks like it’s been eaten away from inside. I've never seen anything like this. Thank you for your quick help." Teresia Mpunge, a farmer in Masasi in southern Tanzania, records this message on her smartphone at 11.26am and posts it on a digital platform along with a picture of the diseased plant. At 11.55am a reply pops up on the display of her smartphone.

"This seems to be a type of caterpillar that eats everything from the root up. It must be removed quickly. If the numbers are manageable, it can be done by hand, otherwise with a plant spray." Mpunge is a member of the Macho Sauti project, which means "my eyes, my voice" in Swahili.

The project is based on research by Angelika Hilbeck, senior scientist for environmental biosafety and agroecology at the ETH Zurich. In collaboration with researcher Eugenio Tiselli and the NGO Swissaid, she has been studying how digitalisation can encourage the uptake of agroecological farming among smallholder farmers in Tanzania.

The principle is simple: smallholder farmers can take pictures of any problems they face and post them in the app along with a voice message. The message goes to all users of the app which comprises smallholder farmers as well as local agricultural consultants and experts, who can send a response. The replies are also stored digitally so that an extensive database of appropriate solutions is created over a period of time.

Every trained farmer shares her knowledge with a group of about 15 farmers who receive a smartphone. Blaise Burnier of Swissaid notes that this network currently includes about 3,000 farmers and their families. The goal is to reach 8,000 families. "The voice messages make it possible to disseminate agroecological knowledge in a country with a low literacy rate," says Burnier.

Scene change: a farmer in India observes unfamiliar pests on his crop. He too takes a picture and uploads it in an app called Cropwise Grower. The picture is analysed by software algorithms and a solution is provided, which has a 93% probability of being accurate in identifying the pest, the crop protection product to be used, the quantity to be applied as well as any safety precautions.

"This is very helpful because the farmer doesn’t use just anything but applies the right product correctly," says Elisabeth Fischer, head of sustainability strategy and transformation at Syngenta. The agribusiness is one of the world's biggest investors in digital applications for agriculture. Drones for the precision delivery of fertiliser or self-driving tractors are usually tested in large farm enterprises, for example in the USA or Brazil.

"For smallholder farmers, we believe it is more useful to provide extension services," says Fischer – for example, agronomic advice and marketing platforms. The Cropwise Grower app has already been used by several hundred thousand farmers in India.

The two cases above have similar benefits but differ widely in their approach and scope. Between these two ends of the spectrum there are a plethora of apps available worldwide to cater to farmers’ everyday needs: apps that can determine soil fertility and weather as well as make precise predictions about harvests and market prices. They also simplify certification for farm enterprises, link consumers with producers and allow transactions to be conducted from the field. Many apps promise to raise yields, drive sustainable agriculture, empower women and get young people back to farming. In short, digital agriculture seems to be an easy solution for the pressing problems of our times. But is it?

"It was a very time-consuming project," says Burnier of Swissaid about Macho Sauti. Ultimately, it was not just about installing the app but also about supporting the farmers and their families in using it. This involved seemingly simple things such as how to compose a concise voice message or charge the battery. “"An app by itself is not enough to provide smallholder farmers with the knowledge they need," says Burnier. Face-to-face, human outreach for transmitting knowledge is an essential element of Macho Sauti. That is why the target group is also significantly smaller compared to that of commercial apps.

Feedback from NGOs confirms that many projects tend to peter out without support (see box). Macho Sauti wanted to avoid this. "Since 2011, we have been spending several weeks at a stretch in the region to understand what the needs of smallholder farmers are and which digital applications actually provide added value," says Hilbeck. She believes that digital agriculture is beneficial only if it adopts a user-centric approach from the outset.

She is critical of this not being done in most cases. “The majority of apps are commercial products that have been developed by companies in the Global North. For the applications to be as precise as possible, farmers must enter large amounts of data; sometimes the entire farm must be measured. Moreover, no one can predict how secure this data really is and if it is not used for other purposes as well,” says Hilbeck. Digitalisation in the agricultural sector would then lead to further disempowering smallholder farmers, for example through the loss of traditional knowledge.

Hilbeck says that farmers must always ask: "What added value does the app provide?" and "Am I better or worse off if the app were to fail?". As Hilbeck says: "Our app was never intended to replace anything, but rather to supplement."

Daniel Valenghi, programme officer at the SDC’s Food Systems section in Ethiopia, says that digitalisation so far has been adopted by better-off farmers. "Electricity and internet connectivity are a big problem in many places," he says. A 2020 report points out that only 37% of smallholder farmers worldwide have access to the internet, and by far not everyone owns a smartphone.

The SDC funds several projects for promoting digital agriculture in the Global South, including Macho Sauti as well as the Farmbetter app which can assess a farm's resilience using algorithms and suggest climate-friendly cultivation methods. "It is poor smallholder farmers who urgently need better internet connectivity and access to electricity," says Valenghi. Only then can the tremendous potential of digital farming for the Global South be tapped into.