Improving soybean production using innovative digital and extension approaches

“我们的目标是帮助至少3万名农民，特别是妇女，成功地进入一个被忽视的粮食市场，使他们能够改善生计。我们将通过数字支持的咨询服务，经过培训的社区冠军，他们可以将农民介绍给可靠的商人，加上空间和地面技术的应用，观察影响害虫种群爆炸的环境条件，这可以帮助我们建立类似于同等天气预报的中期虫害预报。虫害和疾病占了前-收获作物损失高达40%，但咨询服务帮助小农科普为他们提供针对可能的虫害水平的可操作、及时和特定地理的虫害管理信息。买得起农药的农民经常无意中喷洒对环境有害的化学物质，这可能会不必要地增加成本，或者在错误的时间使用过量的农药。对于那些负担不起这种治疗的人来说，他们可能会受到威胁生计和造成粮食损失的害虫爆发的摆布。在这个项目中，我们汇集了：（a）现有的有效咨询服务（种植），从农村扩展到城市周边的农民，帮助妇女种植大豆作物并将其销售到城市粮食系统;（B）一个由多达300名乡村推广顾问组成的网络，教导农民同伴如何管理害虫，并向食品加工商安全供应无农药残留的优质大豆;（c）为这些顾问提供开创性的服务，通过卫星遥感和地面数据观察得出的复杂模型，提供特定地理和时间的害虫爆发前瞻性警报，以便农民能够在足够的时间内告诉他们何时将面临害虫问题，以及如何最好地科普它;以及（d）为农民提供金融安全网，包括信贷（购买投入）、基于图片的虫害保险计划（验证对新型作物虫害保险的索赔，以便在发生毁灭性虫害入侵时能够恢复），以及从食品加工商处获得的有保证的购买价格。我们之所以选择大豆，是因为它对消费者的营养价值高，对种植者的经济回报高，而且它在满足国内对这种目前必须在非洲进口的作物的需求方面具有巨大的潜力。"

"Our goal is to help at least 30,000 farmers, particularly women, successfully access a neglected food market so they can improve their livelihoods. We will do this through a novel blend of digitally-supported advisory services, trained community champions who can introduce fellow farmers to reliable merchants, plus the application of Space and ground technology which observe the environmental conditions that influence insect pest population explosions, and which can help us create medium term pest forecasts similar to equivalent weather forecasts.Pests and diseases account for pre-harvest crop losses of up to 40% but advisory services help smallholder farmers cope in giving them actionable, timely, and geo-specific pest management information geared to the likely levels of infestation. Farmers who can afford pesticides often inadvertently spray environmentally damaging chemicals, potentially adding unnecessarily to their costs, or use excessive amounts at the wrong time. For those who can't afford such treatments, they can be at the mercy of pest outbreaks which threaten livelihoods and create food losses. In this project we bring together: (a) an existing and effective advisory service (Plantwise), extended from rural to peri-urban farmers, to help women grow and sell soybean crops into urban food systems; (b) a network of up to 300 village extension advisors to teach fellow farmers how to manage pests and supply quality beans safely, without pesticide residues, to food processors; (c) a ground-breaking service for these advisors, providing geo- and time-specific forward-looking alerts of insect pest outbreaks created via sophisticated models, derived from satellite remote sensing and ground data observations, so farmers can tell in enough time when they'll be faced with a pest problem, and how best to cope with it; and (d) a financial safety net for farmers comprised of credit (to buy inputs), picture-based pest insurance schemes (to validate claims against a new type of crop - pest - insurance, so they can recover in the event of devastating pest invasions), and guaranteed purchase prices from a food processor. We have chosen soybean for its high nutritional benefit to consumers, its high-value financial rewards to growers, and its great potential in meeting domestic demand for a crop which currently has to be imported across Africa."