Chatbot

Uliza-WI Chatbot

How are we putting essential weather information in the hand of every farmer?

With the Uliza-WI Chatbot on Telegram or Whatsapp, farmers can easily access a range of climate advisory services, from weather forecasts to operational farming advice, on their mobile phone. This innovative product gives farmers and other users an accurate weather outlook for the coming days, weeks and months to make climate-smart decision on a farm level.
In Swahili language ‘Uliza’ means ‘ask’, representing that users can require information easily via their phone, at any time.

Video: Mónica and Lorenzo explain the features of the Uliza-WI chatbot. 

Chatbot features

Our chatbot provides operational farming advice based on a comprehensive range of forecasts, from medium range weather forecast to seasonal forecasts. This blended product also includes monitoring and prediction capabilities for the onset of the rainy season, as well livestock advice, to send for example heat stress alerts. This empowers farmers to take timely action to protect their crops and livestock.

Our decision-making support includes a wide range of operational farming activities such as planting, fertilizing, pest & disease control, and weeding. It is tailored to individual needs, considering factors like current weather conditions, crop type, growth phase, and local farming practices. Users can request information in various languages and specify their location for the most precise forecast and advice.

Features of the chatbot are:

From SMS to a powerful dissemination platform

Leveraging on the increasing use of smartphones and internet connectivity, our advisory dissemination goes beyond traditional SMS texts to include images, voice messages, and even video content. However, the Uliza-WI chatbot is much more than a new dissemination tool. It is a powerful platform that serves as the central hub for all Weather Impact services (farming advice, weather forecasts, crop suitability maps etc.), conveniently accessible 24/7 to farmers. A significant advantage of the chatbot is its capability for two-way communication, allowing our company to directly receive field information. This feedback loop enables us to continuously refine and enhance our advisories.

 

        

Fig. 1, 2 and 3: Screenshots of Uliza-WI chatbot, showing different menu options, a agriculture Step by Step Guide and a multi-day weather forecast for a selected location.

Within the project SAFE4ALL Africa, Uliza-WI chatbot will be further developed, aiming to better support local and regional actors in decision-making to safeguard African food productivity and to build climate resilience in local communities.

Farmers in Zimbabwe are pleased that they were able to prepare in advance for the coming rains, thanks to the chatbot’s forecasts. The chatbot user test group was really happy the forecast was correct.

Dissemination methods for weather and climate information

Besides the chatbot, we also offer alternative dissemination methods for weather and climate information:

Accurate and localized weather information is often send via SMS. This way we easily reach farmers in the last mile, who do not have access to a stabilized internet connection. The information via SMS contains weather forecasts, weather alerts and farm management advices. Within the Cropmon project in Kenya we reached over 190,000 farm households with weather SMS’s.

Our Weather4Farmers app supports small-scale farmers with localized agri-weather information. Based on high-quality, localized weather information they can determine the best time to plant or harvest, to use fertilizers and pesticides, to choose the best crops and make investment decisions. This results in higher productivity and more efficient use of inputs.

Weather Impact’s operational API makes it easy to directly connect to our operational weather services. Whether you are looking to obtain weather data, or you want to plug your own application onto our meteorological database, or you want to receive complete weather services, the Weather Impact API is an easy way of obtaining all the weather information you need.