ScanDid

Identifies crop diseases and offer both small and large scale farmers possible solutions using the camera and artificial intelligence .

It is a revolutionary smartphone application that utilises artificial intelligence  to predict and detect crop diseases and offer recommended solutions based on scientific knowledge in real time. The farmer the uses the camera to take pictures of the affected crop.The pictures are then uploaded in the database of the app, the app uses AI to detect any crop disease on the picture and suggest possible solutions to the crop disease. The app also suggest the nearest agrovets that the farmer can get pesticides or herbicides to treat the crop diseases.

Kenya was classified as a food deficit country in 2018 by the global hunger index. Kenya faces a food deficit of 2 billion metric tonnes annually according to the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI). It’s projected to reach 10 billion metric tonnes by 2030. This causes an alarm. The same year, 2030, almost over 40% Kenyans will be facing starvation.  From the the global hunger index in 2018, the data states that 1 in every 3 Kenyans suffer from severe food insecurity and poor nutrition.

Nearly 80% of Kenyan farmers are small scale farmers who are illiterate and have insufficient knowledge on crop diseases and treatment. The farmers also have a challenge getting proper suggestions to the crop diseases in good time. Crop diseases have been one of the major threats to the small scale farmers and the Kenya Agricultural Sector. This challenge has led and is leading to families in Kenya sleeping hungry, the Kenyan agricultural  economy deteriorating and we as Kenyan having a challenge in achieving   Zero Hunger by 2030.

ScanDid  targets all farmers in Kenya and most specifically the low economy farmers in Kenya. We are targeting the whole small scale farmers population in Kenya that if lifted will boost the economy of the country. It will also boost the performance of the Kenya agricultural sector. Families of the  small scale farmers will also be lifted and enable to have a plate of a meal on their tables everyday. We will also be participating in achieving SDG 2, No Hunger by twenty thirty and helping Kenyan farmers be in a proper economical and social state by 2030. Farmers who realise crop diseases on their plants later after crop destruction and those who don’t know what is the appropriate solution to the crop diseases challenging them will get a proper solution by using ScanDid.  

We are a group of students who have had a first hand  experience with the challenge in our parents farms. We have also interviewed other small scale farmers in some parts of Western Kenya, Nyanza, Central Kenya  and the Rift Valley provinces of Kenya. We have also done research on Kenyan farmers and the largest threat in Kenyan agricultural sector. We have done a research on how the challenge of crop diseases has been solved in Kenya. Unfortunately, there is no specific solution to crop diseases facing Kenyan small scale farmers. That’s when we brainstormed and came up with the application. We also shared our brains with some farmers and they were supporting the project. They were very happy with how the app helps urgently on the right time. How to easily use the app is also an additional benefit of the illiterate small scale farmers in Kenya.

Most small scale farmers in Kenya don’t have proper knowledge on how to deal with crop diseases. Kenya has been classified as a food deficit country which is alarming. Crop diseases are a threat to the Kenyan economy and more than 80% small scale farmers families in Kenya. This is a challenge that needs great attention for agriculture in the backbone of the Kenyan economy. Our app is solving this challenge at a greater extent by reaching the small scale farmers who are mostly responsible for the Kenyan economy.

We have the idea of making the application which will help solve SDG 2, No Hunger. We have the whole idea and the list of the resources that we may require in the project. However, we don’t have the support to help us actualise the idea which will help the small scale farmers and and large scale farmers. 

Artificial intelligence is the core technology to our app.This is because the app involves taking pictures,scanning,detecting and providing all possible solutions to the problems. The app will have a database that the app will use to categorize the scanned crop crop disease. The database will also suggest solutions collected  using the Artificial Intelligence.

We are targeting to serve around 40% of the 4.5 million small scale farmers by mid 2023. We will later get more marketing and reach more farmers as we expand our project in following years. 

We have planned to reach around 40% of Kenyan small scale farmers by mid 2023. We are also targeting to offer proper education on crop disease through our app and physically in our home environments when we are at home. We have targeted to reach at least 40,000 farmers physically and have a one to one talk with them. We are also looking forward to partner with  Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI) in making our farmers be more productive and eliminating crop diseases. We planned that by April 2023, we would have achieved this collaboration. We are also have market extension plans where we will extend our services to parts of Eastern Uganda the neighboring Coastal Tanzania for they are in our reach and only the borders are the one separate us. 

We will be using the data of the number of subscribers and users of our app to measure our progress. We will also be recording the approximate number of farmers we have physically engaged with. We will also be using SDG 2 indicators to help us see the progress in individuals provinces or locations. We will also use feedback from the farmers on how the app is helping them and their reflection to measure how we are progressing. 

Financial support to develop and market our app is the main barrier that we have been facing and we might face in the next year if we don’t get a hand to help us prosper. We will also have a challenge if we don’t get proper mentorship and guidance on how to develop and market our product for we are still high school students who need a lot of support. Farmers who don’t have smartphones might also be a hinderance to the success of the set goals for this year and next year.

We are students at high school,we are from the low class families. We can easily get to the small scale farmers for we are from such families. With the plans we have in partnering with Kenya Agriculture Research Institute, we hope to even get to more farmers across Kenya. We don’t have the financial support that can help as push through our project. We really want to implement it.In terms of skills,we are unskilled because we don’t know how to develop the app together with its database. This means,  for us develop the app, we will need a software engineer(app developer)in this. However, we have also been trying to learn using YouTube videos on how to develop and application. We have the solution but delivering it is the problem is because we are badly in need of financial and mentorship  support. Since we started working together, it has been of great help to all of us because we have learnt to look at every point of view and come up with what we think is the best solution.

Currently we are not working with any organization,but we have been receiving supports from our school.We hope that coming forward we will find an organization that could possibly sponsor our project and help us implement our solutions to the world. We are also looking forward to partner with Kenya Agriculture Research Institute.

Our project qualifies for the prize because it focuses on uplifting the marginalised small scale farmers and by empowering small scale Kenyan and African  farmers we will be able to improve the overall Kenyan and  African living standards since agriculture constitutes a significant scale in its economy. Agriculture is the backbone of most African countries Kenya included. We will also be contributing to achieving SDG 2, Zero Hunger by 2030.