Aligning needs with solutions: Data-driven agricultural innovation for Vietnam’s farmers
“The technology users – the farmers – are central to technology development,” said Dharani Dhar Burra, data scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).
In many ways, technology, including information and communication technology (ICT), has made our lives easier and helped solve many of society’s challenges.
But how do we make sure that ICT lends itself as well to helping those who grow our food?
To help Vietnam’s technology innovators rest assured that their ICT for agriculture (ICT4Ag) solutions do in fact adequately respond to Vietnamese farmers’ current and important challenges, they, together with farmers, convened at a workshop in which both parties gained a deeper appreciation of the challenges in the field on the one hand, and existing technology solutions on the other.
At the workshop, participating farmers learned of available, useful technologies, for example, nutrient managers and site-specific agronomic advice delivered through mobile phones, that they never knew existed in Vietnam.
“The technology users – the farmers – are central to technology development,” Dharani Dhar Burra, data scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), said. “In order for us to be able to harness insights from big data, and later develop effective solutions based upon those insights, we first have to consistently know every minutest detail of what goes on in the field. This is where farmers come in.”
