In Nigeria, CropCura app uses AI to diagnose crop diseases
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Vanguard
Illustrative image · Luis Quintero · Pexels · Licence PexelsThe CropCura app, co-founded by Victor Onyekachukwu, analyses photos of affected crops in under a minute and suggests solutions. It has more than 2,000 farmers, who have mapped more than 10,000 hectares, and plans a credit scoring system to facilitate loans, according to Vanguard.
CropCura, a Nigerian app co-founded by Victor Onyekachukwu, allows farmers to photograph affected crops and receive, in under a minute, an artificial intelligence analysis with recommendations. According to Victor Onyekachukwu, quoted by Vanguard, many farmers still rely on traditional knowledge or sometimes wait days for a visit from an agronomist.
The tool also offers weather information, an AI advisory service and digital farm mapping. These digital profiles, which record the farmer, their location, their crops and the size of their field, are to be linked to a credit scoring system for financial institutions, as farmers struggle to access credit for lack of documents.
The platform has more than 2,000 farmers, who have mapped more than 10,000 hectares. Victor Onyekachukwu cites language barriers, limited access to smartphones, low digital literacy and mistrust of technology as obstacles. He asks the government to recognise verified digital farm profiles as admissible proof for obtaining loans and grants.
