by Juliana Agbo

African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has teamed up with global and regional partners to empower women and youth in the rice sector.

The initiative will provide businesses with precise climate data to guide rice farming decisions, particularly in planting, irrigation, and pest control, to improve productivity and resilience.

It will deliver weather insight, such as rainfall forecasts, temperature patterns, and seasonal trends via Internet platform and SMS notifications, helping farmers make informed choices to enhance yields and reduce climate-related risks.

This will lead to more sustainable rice production, with higher income for farmers.

Funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges initiative, the project brings together Michigan State University (MSU), Kenya’s Cereal Growers Association (CGA), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and Benue State University (BSU).

AATF, in a statement by Communication Officer for East and Southern Africa, George Achia, said the Climate-Smart Decision Support System Project would integrate local and satellite data to deliver practical climate insight for rice farmers.

At the launch in Kirinyaga County, Kenya, AATF’s lead on rice projects,  Dr. Kayode Sanni, noted that youth and women-led rice enterprises have needs for timely climate information across the production cycle.

This data, he said, would support critical farming decisions, from choosing planting dates to irrigation planning.

Principal Investigator for the project, Dr. Cecilia Limera, said understanding rainfall patterns and dry spells allows farmers optimise planting schedules and select climate-resilient varieties.

Climate-related hints on pest and disease outbreak and their expected prevalence enables farmers and MSMEs to anticipate and mitigate risks through timely pest management strategies and use of resistant crop varieties or biological controls,” she said.

Project Lead from MSU, Dr. Daniel Uyeh, added the project would leverage ground sensors and satellite-based prediction systems to create a climate-smart decision-suppor, enabling farmers to manage water and input efficiently.

“Our strategy will equip MSMEs with processed climate information, to facilitate efficient irrigation and a data-driven crop management system, which will boost rice production,” he said, adding that the project will develop a user-friendly climate-smart decision-support system using ground sensors.

The project will work with different stakeholders, like weather agencies and extension services, to give rice businesses the right climate information at the right time. This will help these businesses make better decisions, improve their productivity, reduce risks, and support environmentally friendly farming practices in the rice industry.

Published Date: October 31, 2024