An App for That: Scaling up Sustainable Farming

The Rainforest Alliance Farmer Training App, is available for download by farmers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the Google Play store for Android devices.

The Farmer Training App will enable smallholder farmers to learn more about the certification standards and maintain their certification through best practices. The Rainforest Alliance aims to leverage the Farmer Training App to increase climate-smart agricultural practices on smallholder farms in remote rural areas.

Via internet service, farmers can download the app and connect to other farmers, sharing best practices and pictures. Offline, a series of agriculture training modules and videos are accessible, on topics ranging from occupational health and safety to ecosystem conservation. Farmers can also do a quick test to measure their farm against the 2017 SAN Standard, or to record training sessions.

“The Rainforest Alliance is working diligently to improve training and technical assistance to rural farming communities. However, there aren’t always enough local technicians available to visit every farmer so we’ve been looking at different tools to improve our training capacity,” said Ria Stout, Director of Sustainable Agriculture at the Rainforest Alliance. “Being able to use this app offline enables us to reach many more farmers in all remote areas of the globe. This is very important, because these farmers have very limited access to the internet and to personalized training.”

“That’s the exciting part of this project; that we can reach millions of farmers with one simple tool. It is our hope that technology can help bridge a gap and enable smallholder farmers to leave a sustainable farm for future generations,” said Stout.

Smallholder farmers’ livelihoods depend on predictable weather patterns. With an increasingly unstable global climate, these farmers are faced with a growing challenge to produce enough food for their families and communities. Smallholder farmers produce up to 80 percent of the food supply in Asian and sub-Saharan Africa, regions where population growth is expected to mushroom to 5.2 billion in Asia, and to 2.8 billion in Africa by 2060. The challenge to feed such expanding populations cannot be underestimated.

Climate-smart agricultural best practices help farmers increase their yields, without the need to expand their farmland, and with reduced inputs. With low-cost smartphones or tablets, which are widely available globally, and with telecommunications infrastructures growing in developing nations, agricultural technology is an increasingly vital way to share information. Connecting rural farmers to climate-smart agricultural practices, each other, and the world is an important step towards climate adaptation and ensuring food security.

The Rainforest Alliance Farmer Training App reaches millions of farmers, sharing valuable training information easily and effectively with everyone in a rural community. The app supports our efforts to promote gender equity on farms and to help improve digital skills and literacy rates for forest communities around the globe.

Female farmers (who make up 40 percent of the agricultural workforce on average) may feel intimidated to attend a training, or may have to skip training day because of a sick child or other family obligations are provided equal access to information provided through the Rainforest Alliance Farmer Training App.

This technology is accessible to everyone, regardless of age or gender. And because the information is presented in videos, photos, and graphics—farmers of all literacy levels can use the app, too. One of our partners in Guatemala, explains the benefits to herself and her daughter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQFkaZyzw1E

 Farmer Testimonial:

“This has been a nice experience: nowadays technology is well advanced but thanks to this project, I have improved my skills and have been able to go out and share this project with other members of ADESC. I show them the application and the information. Something that my colleagues and I have really enjoyed is the videos where we can learn about best farming practices that we can replicate in our coffee farms. Another very nice thing is that before we did not know what happened with our coffee once it left the association. Now we know that 45% of the coffee produced in Guatemala goes to the United States and that 17% goes to Japan. I am very happy to know the destiny of my coffee. This has been a wonderful experience for me and for my colleagues from ADESC and I would like to say that we should not get left behind technology is far advanced and each one of us has the right to take advantage of these kinds of projects but we have to be well organized. “ -Coffee farmers and Project Leader Association ADESC, Huehuetenango Guatemala 

Links:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQFkaZyzw1E