AgoTech

Inspiration

Studies show that since 2015, world hunger has been steadily increasing. Current estimates show that nearly 690 million people are hungry which is almost 9% of the world's population. This is a 10 million increase every year or 60 million in the last 5 years. The world is not on track to achieve zero hunger by 2030. According to the world food program, 135 million people suffer from acute hunger largely due to man-made conflicts such as climate change and economic downturn. We have sought out to find a solution for this problem at a local level.

What it does

We develop an application which sends real time feedback from sensors implemented within the farms with current yields. Farmers will be given LPWAN sensors by co-ops to maximize product yield by collecting data on soil moisture, crop growth, livestock feed levels, remotely managing and controlling of irrigation equipment, and combining data with third parties to reach co-ops so they can test the yields for quality. The app also provides an outside texting service for those who do not own smartphones. Farmers can text a number which is connected to the application, the application will text the farmers a series of questions to either register their farm or register their farm shops so co-ops have an easier time in finding them. Our application we provide services outside texting service for those who do not own smartphones, making it easier for farmers to connect and conduct business and get help

How we built it

Part 1(Hardware): Let's test for product yields. Using LPWAN sensors supporting (ioT) applications to send data to a centralized database organized by node-Red.\ Part2(software) The app we will be using is node-Red. Users can input data regarding the registration of their farms or shops through node-Red directly if they have a smartphone. If they do not have a smartphone, they will be using a text messaging service called Twilio or Telstra, which is an australian based programmable messaging service. From the messaging service it will go to node-Red. Their responses will be received by the digital co-operative management system app UI. It will all be sent and stored to a private cloud.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenges we faced were combating the other two problems that were presented to us, which were integrating public service data specific to a region and a simple and transparent method of yielding answers. The question was how were we going to make all the data collected available to the general public and farmers alike. Since they don't have access to smartphones would we have a texting newsletter? Local news letters? And to be honest i'm not sure myself yet. Data collected can easily be distributed to the public by partnering up with data organisations.

What's next for AgoTech

Demographics - The type of farmers we want to target with our product. Old or new farmers, given new farmers might be more accepting to tech rather old. Or Big farms or small farms. profile for co-ops, for farmers to know about the co-op they want to partner with and what their goals are. Last but not least a Monthly report system for farmers and co-ops alike to assess yields.

Built With

• ibm
• ibm-cloud
• ibm-watson
• node-red
• telstra
• twilio