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Can Big Data Help Africa’s Coffee Farmers Adapt to Climate Change?

Can Big Data Help Africa’s Coffee Farmers Adapt to Climate Change?

By Lou Del Bello | From SciDev.Net via AllAfrica

Coffee plants are particularly sensitive to changes in temperature. As climate change warms the regions where coffee is traditionally grown, farmers have to move their plantations to higher ground. New research warns that in many countries coffee production may even disappear altogether [1].

A UK based startup, WeatherSafe, has developed software that combines satellite images with big data on agricultural production, in an effort to support farmers in their adaptation efforts.

The software creates a virtual model of each plantation to analyse its behaviour and changing biochemistry, providing farmers with real time information on the health and needs of the plants, straight to their mobiles. All of this for just six British pounds per year. Lou Del Bello reports.