Page 851 - AI for Good Innovate for Impact

AI for Good Innovate for Impact

2�2 Benefits of the use case

Strengthen rural livelihoods by increasing agricultural productivity, reducing input costs through
AI-generated recommendations, and improving access to market information. These combined
efforts help smallholder farmers boost incomes and achieve greater financial stability. Agriculture 4.11: Smart

Enhance food security by providing tailored crop management advice, early disease prediction,
and support for climate-resilient practices. This ensures steady food production and reduces
hunger among vulnerable farming communities.
Promote gender inclusion by empowering women farmers with accessible voice-based
agricultural services that overcome literacy and digital barriers. The project also commits to
increasing female participation in training and deployment phases.

Drive digital innovation in underserved regions by delivering intelligent agricultural support
via low-tech devices and 2G networks, demonstrating scalable infrastructure solutions for
inclusive rural development.

Partners: Chinhoyi University of Technology, Postal & Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ), Ministry of Agriculture (Zimbabwe), Zimbabwe Centre for
High Performance Computing

2�3 Future work

Future development will focus on transitioning the platform to a microservices-based, cloud-
native architecture to support seamless localization, scalability, and deployment across different
countries and languages. A key enhancement will be the integration of code-switching
capabilities to reflect how farmers naturally alternate between local languages and regional
dialects, ensuring more relatable and effective communication. Strategic partnerships will be
explored with organizations such as FAO, World Food Program (WFP), International Fund
for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to strengthen
farmer support services, access funding opportunities, and ensure long-term sustainability.

Between 2026 and 2027, the platform will target initial expansion across Africa, beginning
with Southern Africa (Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana), East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania,
Uganda, Rwanda), West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal), North Africa (Egypt,
Morocco), and the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia). Looking beyond the continent, low-
resource countries such as Haiti, Nepal, Laos, and Timor-Leste are also identified as potential
beneficiaries for future deployment of this inclusive agricultural technology.

3 Use Case Requirements

REQ-01: It is required to deploy a scalable AI powered chatbot with voice interface optimized
for low bandwidth environments to ensure accessibility across rural areas.

REQ-02: It is required to integrate with mobile network APIs to enable USSD and SMS based
interactions, supporting farmers with basic feature phones.
REQ-03: It is required to implement disease prediction capabilities using timeseries image
and sensor data for early intervention and crop protection.

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