Chatbot

Uliza-WI Chatbot

Uliza-WI Chatbot is the new Telegram bot of Weather Impact. With this innovative product, we inaugurate a new generation of climate advisory services. In Swahili language ‘Uliza’ means ‘ask’, where we provide users the opportunity to require information easily via their phone, at any time.

Our chatbot provides operational farming advice based on a comprehensive range of forecasts, from medium range weather forecast to seasonal forecasts. A blended product from medium-range weather, to sub-seasonal, to seasonal forecasts will give farmers and other users an accurate outlook for the coming days, weeks and months to make climate-smart decisions on a farm level. This blended product also includes monitoring and prediction capabilities for the onset of the rainy season.

Our decision-making support includes a wide range of operational 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:

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, Uliza-WI 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.

Uliza-WI represents Weather Impact’s investment in the future of climate-smart agriculture, empowering farmers with an unique suite of decision support services immediately available on their smartphones.

 

        

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.

Dissemination methods

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.

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.