Gap4All project finished, weather service continues on a commercial basis!
Weather Impact and AUXFIN are happy to announce a continued partnership for the delivering of weather information for African smallholder farmers on a commercial basis.
Over 400.000 Burundian farmer households, an estimated 2.3 million people, are empowered with weather and crop information through the AgriCoach application. These farmers have a license that provides access to the entire UMVA system including the AgriCoach.
Our cooperation with AUXFIN started in 2018 with the G4AW project GAP4All (Good Agricultural Practice for All) in Burundi. With the consortium, we set up information services for Burundian smallholder farmers to aid them with three questions; 1. WHAT to plant?, 2. WHEN to plant?, and 3. HOW to do so? These information services have been assimilated in the AgriCoach app of AUXFIN.
The project has eventually reached 4 times more farmers as anticipated at the start, thanks to the great efforts of our local partner AUXFIN-Burundi. Now, we will continue and expand our cooperation with AUXFIN and introduce the weather service included in the AgriCoach in multiple other countries; starting in Uganda and Sudan. This collaboration will take place on a commercial basis and makes the service financially sustainable.
AgriCoach
In the AgriCoach application, farmers have access to i) the CropSelector to find the best suited crops for their fields and needs, ii) activity planners and short video’s on good agricultural practices for more than 27 crops, and iii) weather- and climate information. For the latter, Weather Impact daily delivers a tailor-made 9-day weather forecast in English, French and the local language Kirundi, as well as the rain-season status indicator. Monthly, a seasonal outlook for the coming 5 months is given to highlight if drier or wetter times are ahead.
More information can be found on the NSO blogpost for the UN Foodsystems Summit 2021 and at the video produced for the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021. In the coming period testimonials of the farmers will be published.
