Embrace Mobile App Tech to control pests, soil degradation - Sesame seed farmers told
Sesame Seed farmers have been advised to embrace the usage of Mobile APP technology on their farmlands to get rid of pests and other risks capable of affecting their production.
The Marketing Director/Head of impact, Robust Group of Companies, Mr.
Abhishek Narayan gave the advice at a town hall meeting with a farmers' group in Kano. He said "the mobile application is used to harness satellite data and when downloaded, it guides farmers on daily task for farming in line with best practices, predict yield and wealth condition while preserving the soil from pest attack."
According to him, unless urgent precautionary measures are deployed, the impact of Soil degradation may lead to 40 percent loss of global food production in the next 20 years.
Mr. Narayan explained that a paradigm shift away from traditional farming production to technology-driven practice remains alternative solution to mitigate the impact. To achieve the best agricultural standard, Narayan recommended the introduction of Acre Square, a mobile application which would boost farmers' yield, and prevent possible attack of diseases and pest on produces.
"The application is not new globally because over 41 million farmers in 50 countries are presently using the Application on 30 million hectares of land globally. It is a well established and widely used application in several countries including India, Singapore and many African nations.
He disclosed that the Robust Group is deepening farmers engagement essentially in the area of processing and value addition to crops like Sesame, beans and other crops to reduce export of raw materials.
He said the firm is setting up a processing industry in Kano and Lagos to improve value chain production, create job opportunities and build the economic viability of the country of origin.
Reacting to the innovation, Vice President of National Association of Sesame Farmers of Nigeria, Mallam. Sadiq Kasim expressed satisfaction with the introduction of modern technology to improve agricultural production in Nigeria.
Sadiq urged the firm to ensure that necessary avenue is created to cascade awareness and sensitization on the significance of the technology.
Some of the farmers that attended the occasion commended the Robust Group of Companies for enlightening and educating them saying this gesture will go a long way to assist them.
They, however, advised the organisation to translate the programme manual from English language into Hausa or Arabic languages to enable farmers understand the application of the mobile app and enhance its usage.
