At iSDA, we are proud of our Virtual Agronomist service and its ability to improve farmers’ crop yield and soil health. Our service uses artificial intelligence to communicate directly with farmers on WhatsApp, giving them personalized nutrient plans and essential agronomic advice for their crops and soil.
Virtual Agronomist offers farmers many helpful agronomic services, including a diagnostic pest and disease feature that asks farmers questions about their plants’ growth and any issues they notice that concern them, for example, insect larvae, lesions, leaf discoloration, or head smut. The information is then processed by our scientific model, which provides a likely diagnosis and suggests treatments. It can also estimate the potential impact on crop yields if the issue is not managed properly.
In response to feedback from farmers across Africa, we have developed a new image-based pest and disease feature, improving upon the pre-existing version, and offering farmers an easier way to diagnose their crops. The previous version of the pest and disease diagnosis was text-based, requiring farmers to interpret short descriptions given and accurately match them to what they observed in their fields. In contrast, the updated version shows pictures of common crop problems, so farmers can easily compare them to what they see in their fields. Take a look at the images below to see our updated pest and disease diagnosis in action!
Virtual Agronomist showing an image of a leaf disease symptom from the updated pest and disease feature
Virtual Agronomist showing an image of larvae, a leaf insect symptom from the updated pest and disease feature
Virtual Agronomist showing an image of an ear of corn infected by earworms from the updated pest and disease feature
Virtual Agronomist showing an example diagnosis from the updated pest and disease feature
This latest update to the feature allows for quicker and more accurate diagnoses. With faster and more precise results, farmers can spend more time fixing crop issues and hopefully reduce potential loss to yield caused by pests or disease.
To learn more about Virtual Agronomist, click here.
To find out about the other features of Virtual Agronomist, click here.
