Agriculture and subsistence farming play a critical role in the socio-economic well-being and livelihoods of the population of Lesotho. Many workers in Lesotho are employed in agriculture, and most rural families depend heavily on subsistence farming for both food and income. Artificial intelligence (AI) presents a transformative opportunity to address many of these challenges and empower smallholder farmers in Lesotho. AI-powered solutions can equip farmers and agriculture extension workers with tailored, real-time information and actionable guidance to improve agricultural practices.
This project aims to introduce a generative AI-powered agriculture advisory assistant that will empower agriculture extension workers and smallholder farmers by providing tailored, evidence-based guidance and real-time support to improve farming practices, enhance yields, and strengthen resilience to challenges.
The project explores:
-
Collaborative Innovation: Developed in partnership with the ITU and FAO, the accessible RAG chatbot empowers extension officers and farmers with timely, data-driven decision support.
- Innovation: The Agrivisory solution is built on open-source
GENIE.AI framework and uses Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). Customized to the project demands, Agrivisory is a prototype to demonstrate how an AI-powered chatbot can give smallholder farmers and extension officers timely, local-language guidance on crop management, livestock care, climate-smart practice and connectivity — grounded in national technical documents - rather than generic AI knowledge.to deliver accurate advice based on verified agricultural manuals.
Agrivisory
- The Agrivisory is a prototype developed to demonstrate the RAG solution.
https://agrivisory.itu.int