Introduction

The SOSIA tool is a cutting-edge irrigation advisory platform designed to empower smallholder farmers with precise, location-specific guidance on irrigation practices. Piloted in Rwanda, Zambia and Ghana, countries where agriculture contributes up to 33% of GDP and employs over 70% of the workforce, SOSIA addresses critical inefficiencies in water use and crop productivity. It fills a significant gap for small- and medium-scale farmers who often lack access to advanced, affordable tools tailored to their needs.

Key Features

  • Virtual Weather Stations (VWS): At the heart of the tool lies its integration with Google Earth Engine (GEE), a cloud-based platform for processing and visualizing satellite and weather data. The VWS provide real-time and historical weather insights in data scarce regions, without requiring users to manage local data storage or advanced hardware.
  • Tailored Crop-Specific Irrigation Guidance: SOSIA delivers precise irrigation schedules customized for specific crops, planting dates, and field sizes. By integrating evapotranspiration data (ETref) from FAO-WaPOR and rainfall estimates from GPM, the tool calculates daily water requirements across the entire growing season. Initially relying on standard FAO-56 crop coefficients (Kc), the upgraded SOSIA now leverages Sentinel-2 satellite data to dynamically refine Kc values based on real-time crop development. This innovation ensures optimal irrigation practices, minimizing water waste and preventing under-irrigation.
  • Dynamic Hindcast Adjustments and Rainfall Forecast Integration: To tackle climate variability, SOSIA incorporates a dynamic hindcast feature that utilizes recent weather data to update irrigation schedules on a weekly basis. This ensures farmers can adapt their practices to changing conditions, providing crops with the optimal amount of water. Additionally, the tool integrates geospatial rainfall data, validated by manual rain gauge measurements, to account for real-time rainfall. This dual approach enhances the accuracy of the water balance assessment, enabling precise and reliable irrigation recommendations.
  • Precise Irrigation Timing: SOSIA factors in irrigation system characteristics, such as pump capacity and drip line flow rate, to calculate the exact duration the farmer should run the pump. This ensures optimal water use with minimal effort.
  • Convenient WhatsApp Updates: Farmers receive daily advisories via WhatsApp at their preferred time. These messages include detailed irrigation instructions and a weather forecast for the upcoming days, making it easy to stay informed and prepared.
SOSIA combines of crop, field and irrigation characteristics with weather station and satellite data to provide its irrigation advisory service.

Empowering Intermediaries and User-Centric Development

SOSIA was developed in close collaboration with Holland Greentech, an intermediary dedicated to supporting smallholder farmers. To maintain security and privacy, the tool is hosted on a secure online platform, accessible exclusively to intermediaries like Holland Greentech staff. This setup enables extension officers to deliver up-to-date irrigation schedules to farmers through print or digital channels, including WhatsApp.

Feedback from Holland Greentech’s extension officers played a crucial role in enhancing the tool. Key improvements include expanding support for additional crop categories, such as leafy vegetables and pulses, integrating a farmer database to streamline data input and reduce processing time, and optimizing performance to ensure responsiveness even in areas with limited internet connectivity. These updates reflect a strong commitment to user-centric development, ensuring the tool meets the practical needs of its users.

The SOSIA dashboard for extension officers.

Benefits and Accessibility

SOSIA has been instrumental in improving water efficiency and crop productivity for farmers in its pilot regions. The tool bridges the gap between highly technical irrigation software for large-scale farms and oversimplified solutions like CROPWAT, offering:

  • Affordable, user-friendly access: No advanced knowledge or hardware is needed, making it ideal for smallholder farmers.
  • Localized advice: Outputs are tailored to individual fields, crops, and weather conditions.
  • Continuous updates: Farmers benefit from ongoing improvements in irrigation advice, adapted to real-time conditions.

By leveraging open-source geodata and advanced cloud technology, SOSIA ensures smallholder farmers have access to tools previously out of reach, promoting sustainable water management and improving crop yields. It exemplifies how innovative technology can address real-world challenges in agriculture, especially for regions like Rwanda, Zambia and Ghana, where agriculture is vital for livelihoods.