Geodata Innovations for Agriculture in Myanmar
Weather Impact presented how weather information can support farmers in their daily business at the “Geodata innovation in Myanmar Agriculture” event. In Myanmar, Weather Impact has developed a real-time agrometeorological advisory service for farmers and extension officers. Our forecasts are combined with agronomic knowledge on cropping cycles and farm activities, and in this way a real-time, weather-based advisory can be provided, unique for the location and crop of the farmer. For example:
- “the monsoon will start next week, it is a good time to buy your seeds”, or
- “heavy rain is expected the day after tomorrow, consider protecting your crops and check the drainage channels”.
This advisory service is integrated in the Htwet Toe mobile application. Because weather is the number 1 information need for farmers and because the weather is different every day, weather information is an important asset for this app. The weather advisory increases the retention rates of app-users, which makes the app more profitable and also more interesting for advertisers.
The geodata event was jointly organized by our partners in Myanmar; Village Link and Myanma AWBA Group, in collaboration with the Netherland Space Agency and our Dutch partners in the MyVAS4AGRI consortium. Together with many stakeholders, we explored various ways geodata can be used in the agricultural sector. Because the digitization of Myanmar and the development of the 4G network are going so rapidly, the future for weather, climate and geodata services for farmers looks bright.
