The winning app uses data such as temperature, precipitation, elevation, and slope, which were available from the GEOSS portal, to help gardeners and small-scale farmers determine what to plant and when. The communication features encourage farmers to share information and build a community of growers. One goal of the app is to help reduce food insecurity [1] in developing countries by providing information to farmers to help boost crop yields and production, for example, by encouraging farmers to plant diverse crops.
References
[1] See L, Fritz S, You L, Ramankutty N, Herrero M, Justice C, Becker-Reshef I, Thornton P, Erb K, Gong P, Tang H, van der Velde M, Ericksen P, McCallum I, Kraxner F, Obersteiner M (2014). Improved global cropland data as an essential ingredient for food security. Global Food Security, Published online 27 October 2014.
Collaborators
Growers’ Nation
University of Maryland, USA
Met Office, UK
Group on Earth Observations
Ubiquitäre Meteorologie (UBIMET), Austria
Research program
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313