Yara East Africa Ltd Country Manager William Ngeno (right) and Fred Nyambare in charge of digital farming explain to Agriculture CEC`s from left to right Albert Mwaniki (Muranga), Caroh Mutiga (Meru) and Jackline Njogu (Kirinyaga) how to access farm weather application on their phones at the mountain Breeze hotel in Embu on ,August 09, 2019. Photo/COURTESY.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 11 – A fertilizer manufacturer has collaborated with Kenyan counties to launch a weather app that gives farmers real-time weather information within a 4-kilometer radius.
Yara East Africa has unveiled the Yara Farmweather App, an interactive and hyper-local weather mobile tool available on android stores, was developed in collaboration with software development company IBM.
The app’s designer Fridah Oyaro says the user can share the information gathered from the App with other farmers on different mobile phone messaging platforms even if they may not have access to the internet or smartphones.
Additionally, the App enables the user to save and access weather information of up to four different locations within the country.
The app was unveiled during a forum convened to brief County Executive County (CEC) members of the company’s new initiative to work with counties on smallholder farmer empowerment on effective fertilizer use for improved cropped quality and yields.
Yara East Africa Kenya Country Manager William Ng’eno says the company has reached out to the Central Economic Bloc for a partnership in setting up soil testing and knowledge exchange centres to boost agricultural productivity in the region.
“The farmer is at the center of Yara operations and we are very specific on the products for different crops and regions since each area has different needs when it comes to farming and soil nutrition. But we can’t know this until we test the soil,” he said.
The CECs welcomed the App, saying it is a timely intervention saying many tech-savvy youth are taking up farming.
“Proliferation of smart forms means that every farmer can have access to the Farmweather App that gives them info on weather so that they can make timely decisions,” Murang’a CEC Albert Mwaniki said.
