Smartphone App Helps Farmers Predict Climate Change And Save Their Crops From Destruction
That also automatically means crops farmers are growing will suffer and could result in a food shortage. So some researchers are tackling that with AI.
A team from Penn State University have modified a smartphone app called PlantVillage to help farmers tackle climate change. The app is currently used in Africa to help farmers diagnose crop diseases. The researchers studied the app and found it to be twice as accurate as humans, helping farmers make informed decisions about their crops.
What they then did was introduce a custom AI into the app, called Nuru. It integrates tens of thousands of data points across Africa, with hundreds more being collected everyday, including official climate monitoring services like the UN's WaPOR portal, which draws from 10 years of NASA satellite observations.
The app can then give farmers advice to protect their crops from the consequences of climate change. This could be tips on flood mitigation, soil conservation, or even which crops would be the most viable in their soil and climate conditions.
"Hundreds of millions of African farmers are already suffering from the effects of climate change," said Professor David Hughes, one of the researchers, in a press release. "For example, earlier this year, which has been the hottest year on record, Mozambique was hit with two cyclones, both among the strongest ever recorded in East Africa. They caused almost $1 billion in damages and destroyed nearly 80 percent of staple crops throughout the region. They also changed rainfall patterns across East Africa, which further affected the crops."
According to Hughes, a majority of these farmers are still unprepared for the climate change impacts incoming. And that's probably the same for Indian farmers too. A lot of them rely largely on rain for irrigation despite water shortages in many regions.
"Our goal is to nudge behavioral changes that will help farmers prepare their farms to be climate ready," said Hughes. "There are proactive behaviors, such as planting for increased crop diversity, promoting soil moisture conservation and engaging in water harvesting, that are known to increase resiliency."
The researchers say their AI will get even better over time, and with more training. They're currently releasing it in Africa to help the farmers there, but perhaps it'll eventually also make its way here to India.