Digital Green is on a mission to transform the lives of smallholder farmers around the world. Since 2006, we've been working tirelessly to bridge the gap between farmers and vital agricultural knowledge. Today, we're celebrating our journey and looking forward to an even brighter future with the power of AI and open agricultural networks.
From Community Videos to AI Assistants: A Journey of Innovation
Our story began with a simple yet powerful idea: using community generated videos to share best practices among farmers. This approach proved highly successful, reaching millions of farmers in collaboration with our public sector partners and demonstrably improving their livelihoods. Digital Green has empowered over 6 million smallholder farmers (53% women) with innovative tools and knowledge, leading to income increases of up to 25%, and with over 70% of farmers adopting improved practices in many areas.
However, we recognized the need to deliver even better, more customized solutions to farmers so they can increase their prosperity even more.
Empowering Farmers, One Interaction at a Time
Enter Farmer.Chat, our revolutionary AI assistant for agriculture. This innovative platform goes beyond video-based learning. It provides on-demand, personalized advice tailored to each farmer's specific needs and local context. And it does so while responding in local voice, with photos, videos and text; whatever interface is best for the users.
Farmer.Chat doesn't just deliver information; it empowers farmers to make informed decisions where they weigh tradeoffs at the moment a problem presents itself. Imagine a smallholder farmer in Bihar facing a sudden pest outbreak. With Farmer.Chat, they can immediately submit a photo and ask a question, without delay and without guessing about what solution might best treat the problem.
Not only can Farmer.Chat enable real-time advice on how to identify and combat the pest, but it can also connect farmers to service providers who can provide affordable inputs to ensure their crops and incomes are growing effectively. And, once the crops are ready to sell, they can get the latest market pricing, helping them identify the best timing and location to sell to maximize profits.
Building a More Equitable and Sustainable Future
Our vision extends far beyond increased yields. We are deeply committed to:
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Gender Equity: Closing the gender gap in agriculture by ensuring women have equal access to knowledge, resources, and opportunities.
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Youth Inclusion: Engaging young people in the digital transformation of agriculture, connecting them to opportunities and using their innovative energy to empower communities
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Climate Resilience: Equipping farmers with the tools and knowledge and services they need to adapt to climate change and build resilient livelihoods.
Leveraging OpenAgriNet for Global Impact
To further amplify our impact, Digital Green is actively participating in OpenAgriNet. Like the other participants in the OAN, we are convinced that the only way to support the world’s smallholders, particularly in the era of AI, is by embracing and building open-source and interoperable digital public goods. By joining this initiative, we are:
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Sharing Knowledge and Resources: Contributing our expertise, data, and technologies to a collective pool of agricultural knowledge.
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Collaborating with Global Partners: Working with leading organizations like CGIAR, Scio, and the UAE's Technology Innovation Institute to develop innovative solutions.
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Advancing Climate-Smart and Gender-Equity Outcomes: Utilizing OpenAgriNet's resources to support farmers in achieving these critical goals.
A Future of Open Innovation and Collaboration
OpenAgriNet's open-source architecture enables ecosystem actors to cost-effectively reuse pooled resources, including dynamic decision support tools, local agricultural vocabulary, and model benchmarks. This fosters collaboration and innovation, leading to more effective and efficient solutions for farmers.
By participating in OpenAgriNet, Digital Green is proud to contribute to a global network that will enhance data accessibility by providing access to open datasets, including conversation logs, unstructured content, and annotated ground truth data. By coming together to develop and share fine-tuned AI models for the unique needs of smallholder farmers, we can ensure the inclusion of low resource languages and decision-support that can generate dynamic advisories. And, true to the principles of OAN, we’re excited to promote open-source development, sharing code, tools, and learnings that enable others to build upon our work.
A Bright Future for Smallholder Farmers
Through our work with Farmer.Chat and partnerships like OpenAgriNet, there is reason to be optimistic we can collectively achieve a sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future alongside smallholder farmers worldwide. By leveraging the power of AI and open collaboration, we are empowering farmers to make informed decisions, improve their livelihoods, and contribute to a more resilient food system.
This blog post was written by the Digital Green team, a collective of passionate individuals working to transform the lives of smallholder farmers by empowering them with digital technology.