Project information

Coordinator: Pessl Instruments in Europe, METOS SEA in South East Asia

Duration: 24 months

Total Budget from the Austrian Development Agency: € 458.573,41

Project focus

This project is aimed to kickstart the entire data-driven recurring revenue business model for PESSL Instruments, and we will focus on one crop to guarantee a successful project implementation. Rice is a key food crop throughout South East Asia and is the most important commodity for food security therefore we will focus our project on enhancing the rice farming value chain. We will be monitoring all primary meteorological parameters (precipitation, wind speed, humidity, temperature, solar radiation), agricultural parameters (leaf wetness, evapotranspiration, VPD, Delta-T) environmental parameters (water level), and possible insect pressure as well. The goal is to give actionable and simple advice to the smallholder farmers and stakeholders. We then will create models and teach the DFA’s how to interpret these data to provide actionable agronomic advisory relevant to the rice farmers in the IoT coverage zone.

There will be two main pillars of this project:

• Technology: The deployment of a regional Agro-Meteorological IoT Network in a contiguous location populated with many rice farmers will serve as a critical infrastructure that will enhance the advisory capacity to support Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) adaptation.
• Training: The training and certification of local village talent into trained technical advisors called Digital Farm Advisors (DFA) will be the primary interface for the propagation of CSA advisory to the rice farmers.

Our Digital Farm Advisor will be:

SUSTAINABLE: But sustainability is only possible if the value is derived from the services offered and she/he can make sufficient money to survive. As highlighted throughout this document, we aim to prove via this project that the data will improve the farming economy for rural rice farmers. We have lined up local agricultural training institutes to continue the training of DFA’s upon the completion of the ADA financing phase. Unfortunately, the reality is that economic viability is the only proven approach to ensure sustainability.
HOLISTIC: A combination of human development and technological investments provides complete support.
DIGITAL: Advisory services using the latest tools from PESSL, to digitally transform farming activity.
LOCAL: Advisors are local and able to advise from 100 to 300 farmers in their community and can make a living with hardware, software, and support of the clients.
EXPERT: Advisors are trained by PESSL and capable to support and recommend products, services, or decisions.