A digital platform has improved potato yields in Rwanda. The AKILIMO digital platform was launched in 2020 by CIP, RAB, and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the One Acre Fund to address low yield challenge in the country.
The platform was brought to serve cassava and potato farmers. To date, the digital platform operates in three counties where it has undergone nearly 200 trials to evaluate variations in fertilizer use among sites. These data will be used to calibrate AKILIMO for crop and spatial models.
AKILIMO considers fertilizers that are commonly available to potato farmers and provides recommended use for those fertilizers to the individual farmers. Based on last year’s data, recommended fertilizer use rates exceed the government’s recommended rate 300 kilograms of NPK fertilizer per hectare but did have small differences across districts.
AKILIMO-tailored fertilizer
A second season of multilocation trials has begun in the same districts along with a set of farmer-managed trials to compare blanket fertilizer recommendations with the tailored fertilizer recommendations provided by AKILIMO. The AKILIMO-tailored fertilizer recommendations can be delivered to farmers using a variety of tools, such as smartphone apps, printable guides, and/or IVR-based messages directly to farmers. It is expected that AKILIMO will be extended to cassava in the near future and possibly to rice (in collaboration with the Africa Rice Center) over the next five years.
Potatoes are cultivated across Rwanda and they are growing in popularity. The majority of the crop is produced in the northwestern region of the country in the districts of Burera, Musanze, Nyabihu, and Rubavu. For this reason, the International Potato Center (CIP) and Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) are focusing their efforts in this area to release varieties that are high-yielding, pest and disease resistant, and climate-resilient.
