Going Digital! IITA holds Promo day for digital technologies

IITA and partners gathered today, 1 November, to launch IITA applications designed to promote productivity. With the theme “Smart tools for smart farming”, the meeting demonstrated the linkages between IITA’s products and our applications.

Agricultural productivity in Africa has a number of challenges, including “lousy seeds”, lack of professionalism, insufficient capacity, low adoption of improved varieties, and low varietal turnaround rate. Speaking on providing solutions to these challenges, Lava Kumar, Head of Virology said, “Access to quality seed = national food and economic security.”

Several applications are being developed all over Africa to assist farmers. Alfred Dixon, said, “We must do an assessment of all digital and smart apps in Africa and then coordinate them in such a way that they will be efficiently and effectively utilized for the purpose they were created for.”

Launched Apps

Seed Tracker enhances seed production and access to markets. It was designed as an innovative digital solution to mainstream seed production and integrate the seed value chain.

GoSeed addresses early generation seed gaps.

Akilimo is an all-in-one mobile agronomic advisor that collects user data, runs algorithms, and provides site-specific agronomic advice to maximize profit.

Herbicide Calculator for weed management is one way of ensuring productivity as farmers know the correct quantity of herbicides to use. This app is being used by low-, medium- and large-scale farmers. With more than 1000 downloads, the app is already being used all around Africa, including Nigeria and Tanzania.

IITA News App and iReport promote the communication of IITA’s innovations and users access news in real time through mobile devices. iReport is a user app to capture all stories; news can be uploaded 24/7 so that no information is lost.

IITA Director General, Nteranya Sanginga, commended every innovator and urged everyone to be their best. He said “It’s about delivery. Let’s consolidate all what we have to maximize impact.”