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，成功进入一个被忽视的食品市场，从而改善他们的生计。为了实现这一目标，我们将采用一种新颖的组合方式，包括数字支持的咨询服务，训练有素的社区倡导者，他们可以向农民介绍可靠的商人，以及应用空间和地面技术，观察影响害虫种群爆炸的环境条件，并帮助我们创建类似于等效天气预报的中期害虫预测。病虫害占收获前作物损失的40%，但咨询服务可帮助小农应对，向他们提供针对可能的虫害程度的可操作、及时和具体地理的病虫害管理信息。买得起农药的农民往往会无意中喷洒对环境有害的化学物质，这可能会增加他们的成本，或者在错误的时间过量使用。对于那些负担不起这种治疗费用的人来说，他们可能会受到病虫害爆发的摆布，这威胁到他们的生计并造成粮食损失。在这个项目中，我们汇集了：(a)现有和有效的咨询服务（Plantwise），从农村延伸到城郊农民，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，向农民传授如何管理害虫，并向食品加工商安全、无农药残留地供应优质豆类；(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测得出的复杂模型，提供针对特定地理和时间的虫害爆发前瞻性警报，使农民能够在足够的时间内判断他们何时将面临虫害问题，以及如何最好地应对它；(d)为农民建立一个金融安全网，包括信贷（用于购买投入）、基于图片的有害生物保险计划（用于验证对一种新型作物有害生物保险的索赔，以便他们在毁灭性有害生物入侵的情况下能够恢复）和从食品加工企业保证的购买价格。我们选择大豆是因为它对消费者的高营养价值，对种植者的高价值经济回报，以及它在满足非洲国内对这种目前必须进口的作物的需求方面的巨大潜力。”

"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."