SeedIt

SeedIt

We aim to collaborate with the Justdiggit app to suggest to the farmer what seeds to plant, to maximise yield while reducing land degradation.

The problem: Farmers in rural developing countries often don't have access to modern and sustainable agriculture methods and know how.   This results in occasional non optimised choice of seed and handling which results in sub-optimal results and reduced yield, soil overuse and land degradation.

The solution:  While rural farmers may lack access to modern agriculture knowledge, they commonly have access to smartphones.   The Justdiggit app is at the hands of local farmers in Africa and holds data relating to the land's characteristics, such as its location, soil characteristics and terrain.  

Together with current and historic satellite data and meteorological data, we can suggest to the farmer what seed to plant and when to plant it to maximise yield while reducing land degradation.

Within the Justdiggit app, the farmer has the choice of different services to choose from. We would like to integrate our solution with the Justdiggit app by adding the following 3 options:  Planting grass, plant trees and plant crop.  Upon choosing the type of plant to grow, we suggest the seed type most fitting based on the data we have available.

By default, the app does not require any data input from the farmer.  Upon choosing which type of plant or crop to grow, the farmer is pointed to the seed to use, along with a link of where to get it locally.  Below the basic information is a matrix including the available seed of interest and their features compared.

The Justdiggit app will receive recommendation from other farmers, which will be presented to the current farmer.  For example, the farmer 3km from you chose this seed and what they said about it.

It is optionally possible to monitor the growth of the seed selected using satellite data, to detect whether it was chosen and the success rate.  This can feed a feedback loop to improve the system in the long run.  

USE of EU space technologies

The use of EU space technologies is attached below, please see attached file:  SeedIt - Acquiring Parameters For Plant Growth.

The Challenge: Justdiggit challenge 1 - Regreening

Regreen app
African smallholder farmers: improve agricultural practices: crop yields, water retention,  soil erosion
> How to scale the use of remote sensing data?

Agroclimatic Indicators 

Agroclimatic indicators from 1951 to 2099 derived from climate projections

This information includes agroclimatic indicators used to characterise plant-climate interactions for global agriculture. Agroclimatic indicators are useful in conveying climate variability and change in the terms that are meaningful to the agricultural sector.

Environmental Sustainability Matrix for Crop Selection

The environmental Sustainability Matrix for Crop Selection may roughly look like in the document as attached under the same name.

Crop and seed information

Here is a link to CATALOGUE OF CROP VARIETIES, for Ghana, each country has a similar publication.  In addition, manufacturers have their own datasheets to complement seed information.

Business Model

Matching between customers and seed sellers holds a business opportunity.  Specifically offering a link for the customer to purchase a certain seed from local provider.

Furthermore, fertiliser and pest control may hold a similar business model. 

Reaching the customer

Having our service as part of the Justdiggit app brings our service to the relevant customer.