Letters

This year’s abnormally hot weather conditions are challenging for planting summer crops, and have a negative impact on standard planting dates and crop yields.

The AgriCloud app, launched by the Rain4Africa project, helps farmers adopt climatesmart agriculture principles, as well as determine the best planting and spraying dates for their crops.

The app uses information from the South African Weather Service, as well as algorithms developed by the Agricultural Research Council’s Soil, Climate and Water business unit, to help farmers determine the best planting, spraying, harvesting and irrigation dates for their crops for their specific locations.

The Soil, Climate and Water business unit focuses on the use of weather and climate information and monitoring for the forecasting of the weather elements that have direct relevance to agricultural planning and the protection of crop, forest and livestock resources.

The Agro-Climate Network and Databank is thus maintained and safeguarded in the national interest.

WHAT IS AGRICLOUD?

The main purpose of the app is to offer farmers weather-related advice and information to help improve production in a sustainable manner.

AgriCloud is available for Android phones. Some of its features include: • Dynamic new information on weather and climate patterns available daily; • Information available in nine official languages; • Information that is location-specific;

• Weather observations that are collected via crowd sourcing.

The AgriCloud information is derived from analysing rainfall patterns received over the previous 10 days. The app then forecasts rainfall for the following 10 days.

The app also advises farmers when it is ideal to spray for pests over a three-day period, thereby contributing towards increased crop production and more effective crop protection.

While the app currently caters only for maize farmers, other products are in development.

• Visit rain4africa.org.