Four hundred rice farmers selected from 23 local government areas in Kaduna State have commenced the pilot stage of digitization, using weather forecast, with the aim of predicting flooding and getting safety tips.
Daily Trust reports that the farmers will be using Iscar Weather Service provided by Ignitia, in collaboration with Vivid Security Solutions to get weather and security tips to their mobile phones through text messages.
According to the Rice Farmers Association in Nigeria (RIFAN), Kaduna State chapter, the service will help farmers know when to go to farm, harvest their produce and when to apply fertiliser and chemicals.
The RIFAN chairman in Kaduna, Muhammad Umar Numbu, who was represented by Haruna Ahmad Tinau in a training for the farmers said, “Our biggest challenge as farmers has been security in Kaduna. This is because most of the major rice producing local government areas have been ravaged by insecurity; but with this service, we will also be getting security tips.”
The Business Development lead for Ignitia Weather Service in West Africa, Iranlade Olanipekun, said it was working with smallholder farmers across West Africa, with a total of 1.3 million farmers on its data base. He added that Ignitia had a minimum of 84 per cent accuracy, which he said was the highest in weather forecast in West Africa.
