Pilot SMS-based service for irrigation advice for helping farmers via mobil phones

Thursday April 5 Good morning in Berkane. Yesterday maximum temperature was 20 and minimum 9 degrees and rainfall was 0.0 mm. For citrus orchards, apply 25 cubic meters per hectare or 50 minutes if pump output 30 m3/hour/hectare.

For the first time in Morocco, messages like this, translated from French, are helping to shape good agriculture practices, popping up on the cell phones of a group of farmers each morning in a USAID pilot program. The new service—daily irrigation advice delivered to a mobile inbox—is already changing lives for the 500 early adopters in the eastern region of the North African country.

Mohammed Azzimani, a 52-year-old farmer in Berkane, now knows exactly how much to water his potatoes and tomatoes For complet texte