Sustainability is the global guiding principle in the agriculture industry, and Bayer has developed an app to facilitate this aspect. The climate crisis has increased the prevalence of pests and diseases in crops and caused low yields due to unpredictable weather.
Therefore, industry players have been at the forefront of adopting climate-smart agricultural practices and new technology. Bayer Kenya recently launched the Bayer Farm Digital App at the Bayer Centre of Excellence in Mwea. A technology that will revolutionize Kenya’s horticulture sector.
The easy-to-use App, designed to empower smallholder farmers, provides an array of real-time solutions including advisory services, where farmers can get insightful advice on the right practices to employ in their farm, depending on specific needs. This saves time and also cuts costs associated with agronomist field work, significantly strengthening the value chain by improving the farmers’ profit margin.
Moreover, the App has a tool called Crop Doctor. This tool provides crop pest and disease analysis. “You only need to take a photo of the particular crop afflicted and upload it, the tool will run an analysis and give you a diagnosis and accompanying advisory service,” said Audrey of Bayer during the engagement session where farmers were trained on how to use the App.
Counterfeit products are one of the major issues that affect Kenya’s agricultural input and seed market. Bayer Farm Rise Digital App has a solution for Bayer Kenya products through the product verification tool in the App. Currently, the App only verifies Bayers products, but industry players who attended the launch on November, 29 suggested the need to include other value chain crops in the app to cater to a wide range of farming needs.
Weather unpredictability has occasioned low yields and massive losses to smallholder farmers in Kenya. The app will seek to remedy this through weather advisory services.
“There is a need to build strong partnerships and ensure this app provides services to farmers in every county,” said Vitalis, Bayers leader for Smallholder partnerships in Africa. He further highlighted the importance of strengthening efforts around crop protection (CP) demand aggregation.
The app promises to revolutionize the horticulture industry by providing real-time solutions to farmers. Efforts need to be made to include other value-chain crops in the app. This will improve food security and farmers’ living standards by cutting losses associated with counterfeits, advisory services, and weather unpredictability.
The event was graced by the Bayer global team from India, the Bayer Kenya team, members of the Cereal Growers Association, the Forest Stewardship Council, and over 250 farmers.
