I want to build mobile apps for farmers because I have been willing to contribute to addressing pressing farming challenges by leveraging technology

While working in agricultural research and knowledge dissemination I had opportunities to meet smallholder and large-scale farmers where I could easily identify the challenges they were facing. I realized that one of the factors leading to poor food production in my community is constrained ICT where farmers didn’t have access to up-to-date agricultural information, potential markets and tools to help them in their daily farming activities. Since then, I’m keen to contribute to addressing pressing farming challenges by harnessing the power of emerging technologies and started teaching myself computer programming.

After almost 600 days of coding, I pioneered and developed two award-winning apps AGRITrials and SmartInput. The former connects farmers, buyers and agronomists. This app was one of the winners of the Young Entrepreneurs Resilience Fund in Rwanda during the pandemic and awarded $1,000 as an innovative solution in response to the pandemic. The latter helps farmers use precisely calculated agricultural inputs. This project was selected by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and featured in its youth solutions report 2020 as one of 50 youth-led global innovative solutions with a $20,000 grant.

Technology is taking over every sector and agriculture is not left behind. However, compared to other sectors, technology adoption in agriculture still lags especially among aging farmers. This is mainly due to digital illiteracy among farmers especially in developing countries like where I live. As a matter of fact, the majority of users of the apps I developed are educated young farmers. As a result, it is almost impossible to develop a good app when you don’t understand farmers’ context. Tech entrepreneurs in agriculture should conduct through research and make sure farmers are capable of using their solutions.