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Agrix Tech helps African farmers tackle crop disease

14-08-2019 | |
2008-05-16 14:51:00 TO GO WITH AFP STORY IN FRENCH BY LUCIE PEYTERMANN A green beans farmer harvests on May 16, 2008 his crop in Kagio, 90 kms northeast of Nairobi, in Kenya's Central province district of Kirinyaga. An increasing number of Kenyan farmers are no longer growing green beans due to falling prices of the crop, a trend compounded by erratic weather cycles, increasing concerns over the crop's carbon footprint and, more recently, the post-poll violence that disrupted numerous sectors of economy, including tourism and agriculture. AFP PHOTO/TONY KARUMBA TONY KARUMBA / AFP
2008-05-16 14:51:00 TO GO WITH AFP STORY IN FRENCH BY LUCIE PEYTERMANN A green beans farmer harvests on May 16, 2008 his crop in Kagio, 90 kms northeast of Nairobi, in Kenya's Central province district of Kirinyaga. An increasing number of Kenyan farmers are no longer growing green beans due to falling prices of the crop, a trend compounded by erratic weather cycles, increasing concerns over the crop's carbon footprint and, more recently, the post-poll violence that disrupted numerous sectors of economy, including tourism and agriculture. AFP PHOTO/TONY KARUMBA TONY KARUMBA / AFP

Agrix Tech, a startup in Cameroon, developed a platform that helps African farmers detect plant diseases.

Agrix Tech, based in Yaoundé, has been testing an artificial intelligence based platform to help African farmers tackle crop pests and plant diseases from their source, reports Quartz Africa.

Chemical and physical treatment

The company is planning to roll out its platform across Africa beginning January 2020 when its commercial version will be released. The technology helps detects plant diseases and offers both chemical and physical treatment as well as prevention measures.

With Agrix Tech, farmers consult the app on their mobile phone, scan a sample of the affected plant and then discover solutions. The app provides both text and voice recognition technology in customised African local languages.

AI library

According to Adamou Nchange Kouotou, founder and CEO of Agrix Tech, the innovation comes in 2 forms: a mobile application for organisations which do not have AI teams and as an AI library to help developers add crop disease detection and diagnosis features into their apps. Agrix Tech has already been tested and confirmed by a renowned agro research agency. The innovation’s prototype has a 99% accuracy, according to its founder.

Once the commercial version is rolled out early next year, it will be able to detect multiple diseases in maize, rice, bell pepper, onions, tomato, Irish potato, pepper, mango, lemon, watermelon, cucumber, cabbage, groundnut, citrus, date palm, amongst others.

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Claver
Hugo Claver Web editor for Future Farming
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