A team from the Distributed IoT Platforms, Privacy and Edge-Intelligence Research (DIPPER) Lab at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), and Sesi Technologies has developed FarmSense, a smart farming tool that uses sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) to help farmers predict crop yields.

The first version of the FarmSense software has been improved and is now ready for testing.

Both the user interface, which farmers will interact with, and the technical system that powers it, have been completed.

The AI model designed to predict maize yields has successfully gone through its first stage of development. The next phase will enhance its accuracy by including environmental factors.

The team is working to ensure that FarmSense meets scientific standards and is suitable for real-world use, making farming more efficient and data-driven.

The project has now reached a stage where commercialization plans have started, with the goal of making FarmSense available for purchase by September.

The team has also begun working with farmer groups to test the system in real farm settings before full deployment.

In addition, discussions are ongoing with major agribusinesses to explore how FarmSense can be integrated with their products and services to benefit smallholder farmers.

This project is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) through Innovate UK.