Abuja-based agric start up Hello Tractor, and scientists from IBM Research are piloting an advanced agricultural analytics and decision-making tool that cuts across the mechanization ecosystem.
Utilizing artificial intelligence and the IBM blockchain, farmers on the Hello Tractor platform will gain access to timely and relevant information to increase their yields, tractor fleet owners receive insights to save time and earn more, and banks are empowered with information for better underwriting and portfolio management.
Machine learning will help to predict farmers’ crop yields, which combined with advanced analytics and the blockchain, can be mined to develop a credit score for loans.
Forecasted weather data from The Weather Company, an IBM business; remote sensing data (e.g., satellite); and IoT data from tractors will also be incorporated into the app to help small holder farmers know when to cultivate, the quality of their farm cultivation, what to plant, and the appropriate fertilizer using remote sensing and IoT data.
The IBM AgroPad technology (developed at IBM’s lab in Brazil) will be incorporated to determine soil quality.
Tractor owners
Using machine learning and IoT tractor owners will be able to view and manage fleet utilization, predictive maintenance and forecast future tractor utilizations based on history, real-time weather and remote sensing satellite data. Using a five-star rating system, tractor operators will be ranked and utilized based on their training (e.g., ploughing, deep ripping, harrow, fertilizing).
Owners will also have financing opportunities, for maintenance and for buying new tractors and implements using historical data.
What’s in it for dealers?
Tractor dealers can benefit from improved tractor repair and servicing, after sales support, spare part inventory planning, credit administration, among other key insights. IoT data gives a real time reading of tractors in need of tractor servicing while predictive insights provide tractor dealers with a view of future maintenance needs.
Tractor dealers can benefit from improved tractor repair and servicing, after sales support, spare part inventory planning, credit administration, among other key insights. IoT data gives a real time reading of tractors in need of tractor servicing while predictive insights provide tractor dealers with a view of future maintenance needs.
Who benefits?
Governments can utilize data and actionable insights for various decision support capabilities such as for structuring incentives, enforcing regulations prioritizing investments, policy makings and so on.
These institutions can view and track utilization of tractors to determine a credit portfolio for the farmer and tractor owner, while also evaluating forecasted utilization to make credit decisions for tractor owners based on verified and trusted data on the blockchain.