Developing a user-friendly application for smallholder farmers for detection of plant disorders

Annual crop losses due to pests and diseases range between 20% and 40%, undermining rural livelihoods, national economies, and food security. Intelligent systems can help farmers make prompt in-situ diagnoses and facilitate effective response to plant diseases and pest attacks in their early stages.

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), in partnership with the University of Barcelona (UB), are developing a user-friendly application for smartphones that smallholder farmers can use to identify and address diseases and nutritional disorders in their crops and thus minimize losses in their yields. The project will initially target farmers in four countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where ICBA has ongoing projects, including Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Subsequently, the application will be rolled out in other countries where ICBA operates and beyond. This training workshop will give insights on the application and will enable partners in the MENA to understand its functionality and their role in collecting data from the fields.