Data drive to help farmers cope with climate change via their smartphones
As smartphones spread to rural areas, an initiative backed by tech giants aims to help small farmers in poor countries access data on crops, weather and soil, helping them boost production in the face of climate change, a farming group said on Monday.
Global agricultural research organization CGIAR said it joined forces with tech firms including IBM and Amazon to analyze vast amounts of agricultural data and advise farmers on the best production methods for them.
"It's time for smallholder farmers to stop looking at the sky and praying for rain," said Andy Jarvis, a research director at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which is part of CGIAR.
"With enough data and enough analysts we'll be able to say if the rains will be late or on-time," he said in a statement.
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