The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Pennsylvania State University, yesterday 25 June 2018, launched an innovative mobile app to fight the fast-spreading Fall Armyworm pest. The talking app, “Nuru” will help African farmers recognize Fall Armyworm.
This app was designed to take immediate steps to destroy it and curb its spread. Fall Armyworm is a new and fast-spreading crop pest affecting large swathes of farmland across sub-Saharan Africa.
With the new application, farmers can hold the phone next to an infested plant, and Nuru can immediately confirm if Fall Armyworm has caused the damage. Nuru is an app that uses cutting-edge technologies involving machine learning and artificial intelligence. It runs inside a standard android phone and can work also offline.
Fall Armyworm first appeared in Africa in 2016, in West Africa, and then rapidly spread across all countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, infecting millions of hectares of maize, and threatening the food security of more than 300 million people.
The Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS) and the FAO confirmed the outbreak of the Fall Armyworm (FAW) in Sierra Leone in November 2017. The pest is everywhere in the country and already causing serious damage to crops including maize. The scale of the damage is yet to be assessed across the country, said MAFFS Pest Management Consultant, Ibrahim Sammy. A statement issued by FAO said many African farmers might have heard about Fall Armyworm but are seeing it for the first time, and are often unable to recognize it or unsure of what they are facing.
“The new tool will help farmers recognize their new enemy and take immediate measures to stop it. It complements FAO’s recently launched Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System (FAMEWS) mobile app, which builds knowledge on how and where the pest spreads, and what makes it less damaging,” said Keith Cressman, FAO Senior Agricultural Officer who leads FAO’s digital response to Fall Armyworm and other pests.
“An important feature of the new tool is that it can work offline so farmers can use it whenever they want it. Nuru is like an extension officer who is always there for the farmers, in their fields,” said David Hughes, a professor of Entomology and Biology at Pennsylvania State University, which led the development of the app with FAO.
Soon, in addition to English, Nuru will be able to speak to farmers in their own language, walking them through the process of checking their crops for Fall Armyworm, reporting back on infestation levels, and giving them advice on how to fight the pest. Nuru will speak Swahili, French and Twi and will be learning new languages all the time.
Nuru is currently inside the PlantVillage app, which is a free app built at Pennsylvania State University with FAO, CGIAR and other public institutions, and will soon be linked into FAO’s FAMEWS app.
In October 2017, FAO launched a five-year, $87 million USD programme to help farmers and countries effectively respond to and sustainably manage Fall Armyworm in Africa.
ZJ/25/6/18
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque
Tuesday June 26, 2018.
ADVERTISEMENT