Speaker
Description
The 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology, and Innovation in South Africa
emphasises the core themes of inclusivity, transformation, and partnerships. Following
the introductory discussion with the farmers, it became clear that the majority of them have
an urgent need for up-to-date soil-health data and assistance with managing their crops
in order to maximize their profits. Addressing this, our consortium aims to create a
smartphone app that will empower small-scale farmers with immediate soil-health
predictions derived from soil digital images. Additionally, this app will extend its
functionality to provide crop recommendations and assist the farmer in smart decision-
making by incorporating regular weather updates and nowcasting of local weather
parameters. An integrated energy and sustainability management module will be
designed to monitor and control energy consumption and carbon emission. This project
proposal unites partners from South Africa, Scotland, and Turkey, leveraging their
collective expertise in science, agriculture and digital technologies.
This innovation integrates advanced technologies such as digital image processing (DIP),
machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI), with deep-learning algorithms and
large language models (LLM) used for ML training, and AI chatbot services for enhanced
functionality. The app architecture includes a mobile front-end API connected to a
dynamic back-end system, featuring a database, knowledge base, and external APIs, with Python serving as the core programming language. Therefore, this project is using
Sebowa Cloud Services – Commercial (4x vCPU, 16GB RAM, 200 GB Disk).
| Student or Postdoc? | No. Not a student nor Postdoc. |
|---|
