Presentation by Bharat Sharma, Principal Researcher (Water Resources) & Coordinator: IWMI-India Programme, International Water Management Institute (IWMI) & Gijs Simons, Project Manager, eLeaf Session: ICTs/Mobile Apps for Access, Distribution and Application of Agricultural Inputs on 6 Nov 2013 ICT4Ag, Kigali, Rwanda

1. Smart ICT for Weather and Water Advice to
Smallholders in Africa
Bharat R Sharma and Gijs Simons
International Conference on
“ICT4 Ag- the Digital Springboard for Inclusive Agriculture”
4-8 November, 2013; Kigali, Rwanda
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

2. Water is an increasingly scarce input in agriculture in Africa
and has large impacts on the economy.
AgWater capacity and
extension is weak and
may not reach the small
and remote farmers.
Smart and affordable technologies need to be adapted to
customize farm water management for smallholders.
Water for a food-secure world

3. What are the opportunities to use ICT to increase
agricultural productivity?
• Satellite images are increasingly being used to assist
commercial farmers and agribusinesses.
• Innovative approaches and ICT based technologies.
• Advice to end users for:
• informed decision making
• enhanced negotiation capacity with water and
farm related service providers
Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org

4. Project areas
• Project aimed at smallholders: 60 pilot
farmers per site are intensively
monitored and supported (2012/2013)
• Services are free of charge (IFAD):
many additional users have registered
– commercial
farmers, research, government, etc.

5. In situ data collection
(Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan)
Block delineation
by farmers
Operational Irrigation and Crop Advisory
Service
Dissemination
(Egypt, Ethiopia, S
udan)
Meteo
data
Data processing (NL)
Calibration and validation
(NL & country sites)
Crop water
consumption
Sophisticated
data processing
Earth observation data
MODIS
Basis EO
data processing
Website with
map server
&
Irrigation
forecast tool
Meteorological
data processing
Irrigation
forecasts
FengYun
Internet
DMC
MSG
SMS
Gateway
Value Adding Partnerships
(Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan)
Data and
information
exchange
SMS to
farmers cell
phone

6. Data production
• ET, Biomass Production and related parameters are calculated
spatially discrete for all three project areas, based on highresolution images
Raw DMC satellite data for 21-11-2012 (L), and derived daily evapotranspiration (M) and biomass production (R).
• Instantaneous data (valid for the moment of satellite image capturing)
are converted to weekly products for the pre-defined seasons
• This procedure is repeated every week: keeping track of the varying
crop water conditions throughout the season

7. Example Operational service
Example FieldLook Web Platform


Information packages
((2)weekly/seasonal)
Based on satellite imagery
Growth
•
biomass production (kg/ha)
leaf area index LAI (m2 leaf/m2 ground)
vegetation index NDVI
•
•
•
Moisture
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
evaporation shortage (mm/week)
current evaporation (mm/week)
surplus rain (mm/2 weeks)
reference evaporation
Minerals
Nitrogen content in the top leaf layer (kg/ha)
Nitrogen content in all leafs (kg/ha)
Smart ICT for Weather and Water
Information and Advice to
Smallholders in Africa

8. Inundation and flood forecasting: The Gash River, Sudan
• Frequent rain-induced floods result in heavy losses in agriculture in this region
The GeoSFM is a semidistributed physically
based hydrological
model that simulates the
dynamics of runoff
processes using RS data
Spatially distributed data is assimilated to simulate stream
flow on a daily basis
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/vie
w.php?id=12099
Water for a food-secure world

9. Towards an SMS service for farmers
• Smallholders - limited internet access
• SMS is ideal method for receiving
information:
75% of the pilot farmers in Sudan prefer
SMS over verbal messages and newsletter
(UNA)
Cell phone coverage in the area is excellent
• Information can be received while in the
field, thus immediate action is possible
• How to go from spatial information to textbased SMS?
• What information to provide?
• Quantitative or qualitative information?
• Timely information delivery: interactivity is
required

10. Farmer
On demand SMS
information
+
Date Provision to
system
Real-time Tool
calculation
Irrigation Server
Text message:
From: <Mob. number>
IrriLook <Fieldname> -i 25
To ….
free
From: FieldLook
Please register …
To <Mob. number>
Check:
<Mob. number> in
Database?
Option F
Check: <Fieldname> in
Database?
Update system
Run real-time calculation
Extract: Fieldname(s) from
user from database
free
free
From: Fieldlook
We have the following
fields registered …
To <Mob. number>
From: FieldLook
<Fieldname> Please
try again later…
To <Mob. number>
Determine:
data/advice from
calculation results
From: Fieldlook
<Fieldname> data/advice
To <Mob. number>

11. Smart ICT SMS service
1. Fieldlook information
- field-average biomass production and water use
efficiency
- cumulative values related to the average value for the
same crop and the same week of the growing season
- on-demand and weekly „push‟
- qualitative and qualitative
2. Irrigation advice on demand
- updated daily based on Irrigation Planner
3. Farmer inputs on irrigation amounts for running the
Irrigation Planner
- full, medium, low
Received messages are at no cost!
Performance biomass
growth since start
season for Sorghum:
similar to average of
all Wheat fields.
Advice 12/03/2013
Onion: Irrigate in 3
or 4 days.

12. Irrigation planner: impact example
Hashamia 10 - Soil Moisture Levels
Alternative Irrigation Scheme
0.3
Soil Moisture Level (cm3/cm3)
Soil Moisture Level (cm3/cm3)
Hashamia 10 - Soil Moisture Levels
Original Irrigation Scheme
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
Date
Soil Moisture (cm3/cm3)
Date
Field Capacity (cm3/cm3)
Plant Water Stress Point (cm3/cm3)
Wilting Point (cm3/cm3)
Soil Moisture (cm3/cm3)
Name
Field Capacity (cm3/cm3)
Plant Water Stress Point (cm3/cm3)
Wilting Point (cm3/cm3)
Hasha10_alternative
E_tot
T_tot
ET_tot
Emax
Tmax
percolation
NDVI_max
Soil type
[mm]
Hasha10_new
Irr_total
[mm]
[mm]
[mm]
[mm]
[mm]
[mm]
[-]
[-]
450
209
68
68
168
168
236
233
1.9
1.9
3.2
3.2
252
Sandy
0.65 loam
0
Sandy
0.65 loam

13. Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org
Photo: Andrea Silverman/IWMI
Photo: :Tom van Cakenberghe/IWMI
Photo David Silverman/IWMI
Photo: Andrea Brazier/IWMI

14. Operational Websites for the Project sites:
www.smartict-africa.com
http://fieldlook.com.sd/; fieldlook.com.eg fieldlook.com.et
Also available in the Arabic Language
Smart ICT for Weather and Water
Information and Advice to
Smallholders in Africa

15. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/24/mobile-phones-africa-microfinance-farming
Bharat Sharma and Gijs Simons
International Water Management Institute- New Delhi, India &
The Competence Centre, eleaf, The Netherlands
b.sharma@cgiar.org
Water for a food-secure world