How digital tools‘ll upscale cassava weed management - IITAThe International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, said various digital tools developed will upscale agronomic recommendations and help farmers improve productivity.

This was disclosed by the Digital Extension and Advisory Services Specialist, IITA, Godwin Atser, while delivering a contract review seminar titled, ‘Digital Disruption in the Scaling of the Six Steps to Cassava Weed Management & Best Planting Practices Toolkit’.

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Atser who explained to participants via a virtual platform said the digitization of the project’s ‘Six Steps to Cassava Weed Management toolkit’, initiated by the IITA Cassava Weed Management Project, already has started revolutionizing the art, science and practice of dissemination and agricultural extension services.

According to him the Six Steps to Cassava Weed Management and Best Planting Practices toolkit, popularly called “Six Steps” is a complete package that addresses all aspects of good agricultural practices in cassava production, which is helping farmers to double their cassava yield to more than 20 tonnes per hectare from the current national average of nine tonnes per hectare.

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The toolkit prescribes best bet practices in site selection, weed identification, herbicides application, tillage operations, weed management, plant spacing, post-emergent weed management and cassava agronomy principles. The Six Steps have been fully integrated into AKILIMO, a comprehensive digital advisory service for cassava.

Some of the digital tools created to scale out the “Six Steps” include the IITA Herbicide Calculator, an app which helps farmers and sprays service providers to estimate correctly, the number of herbicides to be added to knapsack sprayers to prevent herbicides overdose or under-dose; the Cassava e-market, an online market place on the Cassava Matters website for cassava and cassava-related commodities, and an interactive voice recording (IVR) service powered by Viamo where farmers simply dial 3-2-1 on Airtel network for cassava cultivation tips.

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Others are video clips of the recommendations which extension agents are currently using in rural areas with the aid of battery-powered mobile projectors given to them by the project and radio programs about cassava farming currently being aired in English, Yoruba and Tiv languages on some of the most popular radio stations in Benue and Oyo States.

The Digital Extension and Advisory Services Specialist stressed that now that economies and food systems were being threatened by COVID-19 challenges,

He said: “These digital tools for scaling the Six Steps can help us navigate through the challenges of COVID-19 since restrictions to free movement and human to human contact can be by-passed with the use of digital technology.”

On scaling the Six Steps toolkit and the digital tools already developed by IITA and working on the integration of digital platforms being developed by other projects in the institute, he said, “These will be done in the framework of the African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI).”

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The CWMP was led by foremost researcher and Director for Development and Delivery, IITA, Dr Alfred Dixon, with renowned weed scientist, Prof Friday Ekeleme, as Principal Investigator, while he (Godwin) led the communication, knowledge exchange and digital extension component of the project.

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