'Telephone farmers' reaping the benefits of agri-tech

A new breed of tech-savvy farmers is emerging throughout Kenya. Sometimes called "telephone farmers", they are making use of a growing number of technologies and platforms to help them choose and manage their crops more efficiently. And mobile devices are giving a growing number of them the ability to do this while continuing to live and work in the city.

Tech giant IBM's EZ-Farm project -- currently being trialled in Kenya -- is exploring how sophisticated data analytics can help farmers keep in touch with what is really happening on their out-of-town smallholdings. Sensors strategically placed around the farm monitor water tank levels, the amount of moisture in the soil, as well as the performance of irrigation equipment. And infrared cameras measure rates of photosynthesis, which can indicate whether crops are being watered too much or too little. All this data is streamed wirelessly to the IBM Cloud and accessed by the farmer via a smartphone app.