Stories from farmers using the PlantVillage AI driven knowledge tool

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As you may know, we have been beta testing our AI assistant, Nuru, that is capable of diagnosing cassava viral and mite diseases in Busia County, Kenya.  We work with farmers in the Self Help Africa network. There are 28,000 farms in this network across 7 counties being helped by this excellent charity. The charity is trying to promote cassava which is a climate resilient crop. The farmers grow mainly maize, cassava, and bean.

 

We wanted to use this blogging platform to share stories of how the information tool is being experienced by the farmers. We want to share these stories also because we view what we are doing as a co-creation of the knowledge tool with the farmers who are the most important component of any farm improvement system.

 

The first thing we were happy to find is the great comfort they have. They really got the app and enjoyed using it. Lead Farmers like Rosalind Akochi  are chosen by community members and they help them. So, Self Help Africa will do training with these farmers and then Lead Farmers share their experiences with around 20 neighbors.

 

You can see this in the wonderful pictures of Rosalind showing her neighbor Emiliana who is 58 years old the AI system identifying Fall armyworm damage on maize.

We asked Rosaline what Emiliana thought of the tool. She said she was “mesmerized”  she said.

 

We are already seeing how this tool empowers Lead Farmers like Rosalind. It gives them the power to help their neighbors. And what we also learnt is that they are now in high demand and being asked to visit neighbor farms more and more.

 

You can hear Rosaline tell you this . 

 

We will be sharing more stories of these incredible women farmers and how they are helping us help others. 

 

 

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Lead Farmer Rosalind helping Emiliania
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Lead Farmer Rosalind helping Emiliania diagnose Fall armyworm on her farm
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