Plant pests and diseases have serious consequences on food production, reducing the final volume of harvests by 20% to 40%. But these losses do not affect all farmers equally. For small-scale producers in developing countries, this decline can mean the difference between getting by and going hungry, according to the FAO, which states that more than 800 million people suffer from hunger.
Eddy Alvarado, a young computer engineer, witnessed the negative impact of plant diseases on small farmers in rural communities in the Dominican Republic. He decided to contribute his technological know-how to help them "reduce crop losses that had a significant impact on their family economy," he explains.
His solution was to use artificial intelligence to improve agriculture. To do so, he created Agro360, which uses sensors to analyze crop conditions and together with climatic information and statistical data predict changes in environmental factors that could affect harvests. With this information, food producers can make better decisions and improve their crops. For this breakthrough, Alvarado has been selected as one of the winners of MIT Technology Review in Spanish's Innovators Under 35 Latin America 2020.
"Through Agro360 we make farmers more productive and ensure greater availability of food in the markets at a lower price. This has a positive impact on hunger and poverty," the young man explains. By knowing real-time crop conditions, farmers also reduce agrochemical use by up to 40%. This reduction has a positive impact on the environment and public health.
Agro360's wireless sensors measure the environmental conditions that affect crops in real time. In addition, weather stations developed by Agro360 provide other parameters. And algorithms with artificial intelligence integrate all this data to predict and prevent the appearance of diseases and pests in agriculture.
"Like humans, agricultural crops are prone to develop certain diseases depending on the environment. We identify these conditions to predict and prevent the onset of diseases," the innovator explains. Alvarado's motivation is to help fight hunger and poverty.
In the Dominican Republic, Agro360 is already helping to improve rice harvests. Alvarado hopes to expand his technology to other crops and countries in Central America to reduce food production losses and thus reduce farmer poverty and hunger. In this way, the innovator helps meet four of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Jorge Nava, Opinno's Latin America Strategy and Operations director and member of the Innovators under 35 Latin America 2020 jury, highlights that Alvarado "solves something as fundamental as hunger." He adds that "his solution is not only innovative, but also adapted to the reality of the country."
