How Mobile Apps are Reshaping Farming and Ensuring Food Security

Life in today’s digital age is fast becoming better and easier as technology advances in every sphere of life. The development of mobile applications particularly has come to help so much and has become so integral to our daily routine lives. These Apps are helping in the areas of education, finance and economy, security, technology, science, research, agriculture, business and commerce, communication, socialization, human relations, sports, entertainment, and among others. As such, these Apps have contributed immensely to making the world a better place and a global village. According to a recent report from app intelligence firm data.ai, consumers in more than a dozen markets worldwide are now spending four to five hours per day in Apps. This confirms and reemphasizes how mobile Apps have become the center of our attention in recent times.

The global population has hit 8.1 billion now according to the Worldometer and the United Nations (UN), showing how the human race is constantly growing amid limited resources such as land. Pressure mounts to any piece of land in a place where the human population rapidly grows as people struggle to get their portions for different purposes, especially for building and cultivation. As such, the limited land availability affects farming and food security. For this reason, it has become needful that irrespective of any piece of land available be cultivated so well to witness a bumper harvest to secure food to feed the world’s growing population, thereby achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero hunger (Food security).

This highlights the need to deploy the use of technology massively into agriculture thereby making good use of agriculture-focused mobile Apps. Such Apps include CropX -Farm Management, Agrivi, Tend, CropLife, CropTracker, FarmBrite, AgWorld, FarmLogic, Cattlytics, and among many others. These Apps are developed to help bridge the gaps and lapses in agriculture globally. The Apps are compatible with Android Smartphones with Operating System version 8.0 and above, as well as Apple phones and tablets, with an easy-to-use integrated hardware and software system that connects farm data, real-time conditions, and agronomic recommendations while keeping farm data in one place for easy tracking and sharing. It has in-built soil sensors, telemetry gateways, and many other field monitoring devices that allow the farmer to track the soil, water, and crop conditions with high precision in real-time. The Apps give the farmer access to agronomic recommendations, tools, and data about irrigation, nutrient leaching, soil salinity and temperature, fungal disease risks, spray applications, crop progress, spatial variability, rainfall, weather outlooks, farm machinery data, effluent and lagoon manure management, variable rate and more. They synthesize data from soil to sky on a user-friendly app capable of managing numerous farms and fields data from one account, with all of the above features of insights and advice displayed to the farmer on a simple but powerful dashboard.

These Apps are worth to be considered in seeking growth in the agricultural sector and food security because of their contribution to farming in recent times, alleviating farmers’ heavy workload, boosting crop profits, and saving on input costs. The success choked by the farmer or in the agricultural sector is an achievement towards global food security, and this is the main reason why Africa most especially and the rest of the world must put into effective use of these digital tools in their farming expedition. They are over 70% realistic and reliable because of their ability to give accurate data that help the farmer avoid try-and-error approach and wrong farming practices that could contribute to climate change, food unavailability, and insecurity. These Apps are so special as they give recommendations on soil, weather, crops, best animal husbandry practices, and even machinery, making it easier for the farmer to make the right decisions with less stress as compared to previous years or decades ago. As a seasonal farmer, utilizing these Apps helps to get direct access to reliable field and farm data and recommendations for decision-making and proper management daily. It helps with agro-product application, fertilizer application, crops life, pest control mechanisms and cultivation best practices, etc. Most of the Apps have a tool to connect farmers to available markets and reading of market prices for farm produce from time-to-time.

In conclusion, these Apps are helping to uplift the standard and phase of agriculture in the world through their self-infused digital tools, making farming a bit easier and more lucrative venture while contributing immensely to global food security. Governments, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders must encourage African farmers and agriculturalists must adapt to the digital and technological age and deploy these beautiful tools, embrace the change and the challenge to deploy and massively utilize them in their work to help secure a bumper harvest and subsequently overcome famine, through constant education and programs to facilitate their capabilities in this regard.

Source: Sintim Media
Story By: William Effmen