Digital agriculture: farmers receive SMS notifications regarding the risks they may face in fruit gardens

Climate stations are a modern innovative system that allows observing the development phase of diseases and pests in the process of plant development, accordingly, timely and correctly predict the fieldwork. The mentioned sensors collect data on air temperature, humidity level, amount of rain, leaf moisture and time of precipitation, wind speed and are analyzed by the employees of the Ministry of Agriculture. Farmers plan their work against plant diseases and pests with this information in mind. As a result, the effectiveness of the fight against diseases and pests increases, the production of products increases, farmers can optimize.

Thanks to this system, the risk of water shortage, which has become a global problem in recent years, is also eliminated. Farmers know where and how much water they should use thanks to this method and do not waste it.

The first pilot project on the transfer of data from climate stations to farmers has already been successfully implemented in Azerbaijan. The pilot project was first implemented in Guba, Gusar, Khachmaz, and Shamakhi districts. Five stations covering about 60 villages have started to operate in these districts. At the initial stage, apple, cherry, nectarine, peach, and grape plants were identified as target plants.

In March, SMS notifications were sent to more than 5800 farmers registered based on the Electronic Agricultural Information System (EAIS) on risks in the areas of apple, cherry, nectarine, and peach in the villages covered by climate stations. At the same time, for the aim of more detailed and flexible transmission of risk data, the Telegram channel “Digital Agriculture” (https://t.me/ktnsmart) was created, and regular work is carried out to attract farmers to this channel.