Over 1 100 farmers in Zimbabwe are benefitting from a Whatsapp and text-based chat bot.
The two platform assists the farmers in identifying plant damage from pests, diseases and nutrient deficiency.
The platforms were created by Ronald Chikwereti, the owner of eAgro.
“Cropfix gives real time updates with 92% accuracy on detection on 90 plus platform plant diseases,” Chikwereti said.
“With just one photo of the crop, Crosfield diagnosis crops and offers treatment. E-Agro is a dynamic start-up run by innovative youths that are utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning to proffer low cost, inclusive digital technologies to improve farmers’ lives through digitisation for inclusive growth,” he added.
“A farmer just sends us a picture of their crop on WhatsApp and Cropfix helps in solving the problem.”
A quantity surveying graduate, Chikwereti (23) said e-Agro assisted farmers to make better decisions and get a competitive edge with real time data on crop damages and predict commodity prices.
“We also help financial institutions to assess how much a farmer harvested and give a score probability of paying back loans.”
E-Agro, formed in 2020, has five employees, two part-time workers, and two advisors.
Chikwereti said most of the farmers they assisted are based in Norton, Goromonzi and Shamva districts, but was working on spreading its market.
