www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Smart ICT for Weather and Water Advice to Smallholders in Africa

Bharat R Sharma and Gijs Simons International Conference on

“ICT4 Ag- the Digital Springboard for Inclusive Agriculture”

4-8 November, 2013; Kigali, Rwanda

Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world

Water is an increasingly scarce input in agriculture in Africa and has large impacts on the economy.

Smart and affordable technologies need to be adapted to customize farm water management for smallholders.

AgWater capacity and extension is weak and may not reach the small and remote farmers.

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

• Satellite images are increasingly being used to assist commercial farmers and agribusinesses.

• Innovative approaches and ICT based technologies.• Advice to end users for:

• informed decision making• enhanced negotiation capacity with water and

farm related service providers

What are the opportunities to use ICT to increase agricultural productivity?

Project areas

• Project aimed at smallholders: 60 pilot farmers per site are intensively monitored and supported (2012/2013)

• Services are free of charge (IFAD): many additional users have registered – commercial farmers, research, government, etc.

Data processing (NL)

Basis EO data processing

Sophisticated data

processing

Meteorological data

processing

Internet

Dissemination (Egypt,

Ethiopia, Sudan)

Website with map server

&Irrigation

forecast tool

Calibration and validation (NL & country sites)

Crop water consumption

Irrigation

forecasts

In situ data collection (Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan)

Block delineation by

farmers

Meteo data

Earth observation data

DMCFengYun

MODIS MSG

Value Adding Partnerships (Egypt,

Ethiopia, Sudan)Data and

information exchange

SMSGateway SMS to

farmers cell phone

Operational Irrigation and Crop Advisory Service

Data production

Raw DMC satellite data for 21-11-2012 (L), and derived daily evapotranspiration (M) and biomass production (R).

• ET, Biomass Production and related parameters are calculated spatially discrete for all three project areas, based on high-resolution images

• Instantaneous data (valid for the moment of satellite image capturing) are converted to weekly products for the pre-defined seasons

• This procedure is repeated every week: keeping track of the varying crop water conditions throughout the season

Smart ICT for Weather and Water Information and Advice to Smallholders in Africa

Example Operational service

• Minerals

• Growth

• Moisture

• biomass production (kg/ha) • leaf area index LAI  (m2 leaf/m2 ground) • vegetation index NDVI

• evaporation shortage (mm/week) • current evaporation (mm/week) • surplus rain (mm/2 weeks) • reference evaporation

• Nitrogen content in the top leaf layer (kg/ha) • Nitrogen content in all leafs (kg/ha)

Example FieldLook Web Platform

Information packages ((2)weekly/seasonal)

Based on satellite imagery

Water for a food-secure world

• Frequent rain-induced floods result in heavy losses in agriculture in this region

The GeoSFM is a semi-distributed physically based hydrological model that simulates the dynamics of runoff processes using RS data

Inundation and flood forecasting: The Gash River, Sudan

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=12099

Spatially distributed data is assimilated to simulate stream flow on a daily basis

• Smallholders - limited internet access• SMS is ideal method for receiving

information:

75% of the pilot farmers in Sudan prefer SMS over verbal messages and newsletter (UNA)

Cell phone coverage in the area is excellent• Information can be received while in the

field, thus immediate action is possible• How to go from spatial information to text-

based SMS?• What information to provide? • Quantitative or qualitative information?• Timely information delivery: interactivity is

required

Towards an SMS service for farmers

Text message:From: <Mob. number>IrriLook <Fieldname> -i 25To ….

Check: <Mob. number> in Database?

From: FieldLook Please register …To <Mob. number>

Irrigation Server

Check: <Fieldname> in Database?

Update systemRun real-time calculation

Extract: Fieldname(s) from user from database

From: Fieldlook We have the following fields registered …To <Mob. number>

Farmer

From: Fieldlook<Fieldname> data/adviceTo <Mob. number>

On demand SMS information

+Date Provision to

system-

Real-time Tool calculation

free

free

free

Determine: data/advice from calculation results

From: FieldLook <Fieldname> Please try again later…To <Mob. number>

Option F

Smart ICT SMS service

1. Fieldlook information- field-average biomass production and water use efficiency - cumulative values related to the average value for the same crop and the same week of the growing season- on-demand and weekly ‘push’ - qualitative and qualitative

2. Irrigation advice on demand- updated daily based on Irrigation Planner

3. Farmer inputs on irrigation amounts for running the Irrigation Planner- full, medium, low

Performance biomass growth since start season for Sorghum: similar to average of all Wheat fields.

Advice 12/03/2013 Onion: Irrigate in 3 or 4 days.

Received messages are at no cost!

0

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Soil

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cm3/

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Date

Hashamia 10 - Soil Moisture LevelsOriginal Irrigation Scheme

Soil Moisture (cm3/cm3) Field Capacity (cm3/cm3)

Plant Water Stress Point (cm3/cm3) Wilting Point (cm3/cm3)

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Hashamia 10 - Soil Moisture LevelsAlternative Irrigation Scheme

Soil Moisture (cm3/cm3) Field Capacity (cm3/cm3)

Plant Water Stress Point (cm3/cm3) Wilting Point (cm3/cm3)

Name Irr_total E_tot T_tot ET_tot Emax Tmax percolation NDVI_max Soil type

[mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [mm] [-] [-]

Hasha10_new 450 68 168 236 1.9 3.2 252 0.65Sandy loam

Hasha10_alternative 209 68 168 233 1.9 3.2 0 0.65Sandy loam

Irrigation planner: impact example

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www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Smart ICT for Weather and Water Information and Advice to Smallholders in Africa

www.smartict-africa.com http://fieldlook.com.sd/; fieldlook.com.eg fieldlook.com.et

Also available in the Arabic Language

Operational Websites for the Project sites:

Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming

Bharat Sharma and Gijs SimonsInternational Water Management Institute- New Delhi, India &

The Competence Centre, eleaf, The Netherlandsb.sharma@cgiar.org

Thanks. For additional information visit us at theCGIAR

Exhibition Stall.