The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) says more people are logging into its new innovation Agricloud application, which help farmers with ploughing, planting and crop spraying against pests and diseases periods.
ARC researcher, Obed Phahlane, says about 500 farmers using the smartphones visit and connect to the application to get the latest information on agriculture.
He says it is about time that local farming communities join their international counterparts and use modern technology to manage their farming activities and projects. Phahlane says the user of the new farming technology will access farming information on suitable weather conditions, conducive for good spraying and crop protection.
“Currently what is in the App is the planting, the spray advisory, the wheat and insecticide advisory and we are working on putting the other functionalities: your irrigation, your animal management. Very soon we will be putting the wheat planting advisory. There is also lot of head rolling in the ARC we are all excited and looking forward to putting more functionalities on the App.”
Phahlane says the ARC’s introduction of the AgriCloud application is moving up with the times to address challenges created by climate change and unpredictable rainfall patterns.
Phahlane says they hope to improve and update the App in-line with the modern technology as well as building collaborations with the farming communities including farmers associations.
“What we are also doing as ARC we are moving with the current phases of the forth revolution. What we want is to put most of our work on easily accessible platforms to the farmers and also what we are developing which is something interesting is a very strong partnership and collaboration with other agricultural stakeholders.”
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