Digitalization is going on in the era of technology. In the 20th century technology is digitizing every aspect of life either it is shopping, food, or travelling, and so digital farming.
In our daily life we see how technology has been improving our social life. The same way it help in socializing, it also play its role in finance management like digital banking, online transactions and helping customers online, and now digital farming.
Now technology tries to provide its services to farming sector by providing farmers to regulate crops digitally, like online watering, pest free sprays, optimum amount of nutrients, linking customers to farmers and helping farmers to get their full price of crops.
Cranfield University is facilitating business partners in Pakistan to evaluate the efficiency of smart phones in improving farming at remote areas and helping farmers to fertilize their land effectively.this research is supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering for Development scheme.
The remote areas of Pakistan has limited resources and managing farming in that resources is a big challenge for farmers. In these areas farmers cannot afford any mishaps to their agriculture system like natural disasters and political instability.
Vegetative production rate is a key of success for the smallholder farmers and digitalization will help them to achieve their target growth. Mobile phone apps are going to launch which could help them target fertilize to get higher yield. Cranfield University is leading this 12 month project to establish this system and replace conventional methods of land management.
Project lead, Dr Ruben Sakrabani, Senior Lecturer in Soil Chemistry said: “Fertiliser use is key in this subsistence system, but there’s limited data available to help farmers take steps to improve their current practices and management system. This simple tool could make a huge difference to their farming yields, saving cost and improving their livelihoods.”
The international team of researchers will collaborate with smallholder farmers to give assess the mobile phone app to farmers for precision fertilizer management system. The system uses a paper strip to analyze soil nutrients. The strip changes its colour when placed into soil extracts, and its colour intensity is measured by the app, which then recommends levels of fertiliser to use.