Smart apps help farmers flourish
Management of risks and control over production is being improved through the use of apps
Smart apps have become an essential tool for South African farmers. Many are available — and some for free — in the Google Play store, with the objective of helping both commercial and smallholder farmers. No matter how large or small, farmers need sound management principles. Farmers need dependable weather forecasts — not just current or future predictions, but also patterns of the past — to optimise crop growth and generate a sustainable income.
Weather-related information is already available from various sources, such as visual observations, radar and satellites, but this data is often not easily accessible or easy to understand. As a result, for years, crop and animal production has been unnecessarily limited by a lack of essential weather data and agricultural advisories.
The input costs of farming are high and can be high risk. Farmers need to be able to manage that risk and know what is coming and how to deal with it, and that’s where smart apps have become indispensable.
A popular app is
Agricloud. It contains data and advisories from the South African
Agricultural Research
Council and the South
African Weather Service.
Farm-specific advice is available in all of
South Africa’s official languages.
The Agricloud app has specific information for small-scale farmers growing rain-fed crops. Among other benefits, it provides advice on planting, and spraying herbicides and pesticides.
Another app developed by the Agricultural
Research Council is the ARC Hub. The app uses GPS coordinates to identify the location of farmers. It then links them to an advisor in their area who can assist with specific crop or animal queries. Farmers can also warn authorities via the app of the emergence of pests.
The ARC Institute for
Climate and Water uses the Rain 4 Africa app, which is specifically aimed at small-scale farmers to help their decision making by providing timely weather and agricultural data via cellphones.
Livestock farmers’ lives are being made considerably easier these days with herd management apps such as Herdwatch. It monitors the health of animals and will even warn the farmer when a cow is about to calf, as well as providing accurate record keeping and reducing paperwork.
The app also records the weight of cattle and calculates the average daily gain of an animal after multiple weighings. It can work out the required times for medications and record feed purchase dates. The app can be used across multiple devices, and, after the initial download, does not require an internet connection.
Several other smart apps are available to accurately predict when an animal is about to give birth. SMS alerts can be sent to up to five different cellphone numbers. Most of these apps are linked to sensors that are attached to animals. They work in all weather conditions, and even in areas where cellphone coverage is poor.
Apps like Farmboek even provide recommendations for equipment such as tractors, with contact details of nearby suppliers.
While many farmers still use the knowledge gained from experience, the management of their risks and control over their production is being hugely improved with the use of smart apps.