Getting intelligent information to farmers

The Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS) project, led by ACI Ltd together with Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and SNV recently hosted an event in Dhaka to introduce its upcoming mobile application programme, through which farmers, policymakers and agricultural workers can receive advance information on growth of plants, their health status as well as weather forecast.

“The applicaiton will significantly enhance the productivity of farmers, leading to an overall improvement in farmers' decision making and national food production”, said a representative of ACI in a statement, after a workshop on empowering farmers through advanced information. The event was held at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council's (BARC) office in Dhaka. The beta version of the app is expected to be launched in September.

“The full-fledged app will be introduced in January next year”, said Shamim Murad, team leader of the IDSS project that is developing the app. The app will provide crop-specific and location-specific advisory services on crop suitability, better agronomic practices, pest and disease alert and weather forecast for farmers, said Murad, adding that information will be provided by analysing satellite images. Md Golam Maruf, DAE director general, and FH Ansarey, managing director and CEO of ACI Agribusiness, also spoke at the event.