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Have you ever stopped to think about how many things in your life depend on the weather? Everything from your mood to your travel plans to whether or not you’ll get to wear that awesome brand new pair of blue suede shoes you’ve been dying to show off. The weather is also, of course, important for farmers. Being able to predict when it will rain (or not) could mean the difference between raising a successful crop or ending up with a field of dead plants. For farmers outside of the tropics, weather prediction has gotten fairly accurate over time (and, no, this podcast is not about global climate change). However, for farmers in the tropics, because of unique micro climates and rapidly shifting patterns, predicting the weather has been troublesome, at best. At worst, it just hasn’t been available. Enter my guest for the 135th Terms of Reference Podcast. Sable Bender is the Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategist for Ignitia – the world’s first weather forecasting service specifically designed for the tropics. Their current focus is on a product line targeted at small hold farmers in Africa and, as you’ll hear, they are producing some amazing results. You can connect with Sable here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sable-bender-83a3b834 Tweets by sablebender
IN TOR 135 YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT
- How few people seem to be aware how underserved Tropical farmers are, with little dedicated service while they make up 40% of the population
- The origins of Ignitia as a grad project, growing to be the only Tropical weather forecast service with more than twice the indstry average accuracy
- How forecasting is a small part of the battle, farmer engagement being the rest of it
- The role of religious belief in farming and weather; but how science can be introduce without negating their faith
- Ignitia and Sable’s plea for a more prominent focus on Tropical farming, still one of the world’s largest employers
OUR CONVERSATION FEATURES THE FOLLOWING
Names:
- Ignitia http://www.ignitia.se/
- University of Washington
- NASA
- World Food Program (WFP)
- Google X Moonshot
Topics:
- Weather forecast, accuracy
- Tropics, population, farming
- Mobile payments
- Rain
- Satellite data
- Cocoa
- Weather and religion
- Agriculture, employment, services
- Droughts
- Agricultural acceleration
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Weather forecasting services, platforms
- Solar energy
- Entrepreneurship in Africa
Places
EPISODE CRIB NOTES
December, 2016 02:31 Ignitia- (Mentioned by Alexis Bonell ― TOR 124. She reached out to TOR)
- A Tropical Weather Forecasting Service
- Predicting tropical weather is quite different
- Born out of a research project from the U of Washington
- “There is not a lot of data to accurately predict the weather here”. Coupled with 40% of the world’s population living in the fringe
- Sable works with farmers, who subscribe to the service
- “We survive through partnerships. The goal is to become sustainable”
- All is paid through mobile payments
- Ignitia was “ignited” as a UW research project with NASA
- There are places underserved, information-wise
- Livelihood depend on critical info
- In Africa, rain is everything
- Ignitia has scientist and meteorologists who create algorithms that get satellite data as input
- “Wonderful science and math”
- Ignitia creates predictions for specific regions
- 84% forecast accuracy (cf. 39% general averages)
- Head scientists are based off Ghana and Sweden
- There are two super computers in Sweden
- “We rely on satellite data”
- The farming process is affected by weather throughout
- Ignitia founder (Liisa Petrykowska?) was keen to effect crop yield, which doubled farmers’ income within two years after Ignitia intervened
- Cocoa
- Forecasting helps planning and hedging
- Ignitia talks to farmers constantly
- For farmers, it has been life changing, “It’s been making a difference”
- Increasing accuracy further, penetration, farmer involvement?
- “All of it”
- There is a lot of religiosity among subscribing farmers, pertaining the weather
- But when it comes to farming, science will always have a place
- “Are you speaking with god?”
- For many reasons, the Tropic is a forgotten place
- Lots of conversations to sail through beliefs and introduce science
- Religion has actually improved marketing efforts
- Initiatives have involves pastors at churches
- Good farming is a path to salvation
- Ghana is very large, religious, traditional
- Stephen: You put academic micro-targeting to shame
- “I don’t think I have a concrete answer”
- Tropics have just not been a priority for anyone
- Agriculture is still the world’s largest employer
- “You don’t know what you don’t know”
- Funding is an issue, always
- USAID and partners provide some stability
- “It’s a learning experience”
- Countries, even neighbors, work very differently
- Interaction with farmers is a constant challenge
- “People underestimate the size of Africa and the different countries”
- Tropics are a key factor in humanitarian intervention
- People is text-based. They “have phones, just not smartphones”
- Dealing with skepticism
- There are other weather services, but unlike Ignitia they are “repackaging”, “rebroadcasting”
- Stephen: I lived in the tropics for 4 years, how did I not know about this? How did you?
- Sable held agriculture dear to her heart
- Based off DC, she traveled to Ghana a couple of times
- When offered permanent work in Ghana, she hardly hesitated
- “I have enjoyed the experience. I am glad I am here, working with farmers”
- (Dog barks)
- Doing good can take you anywhere
- “That would be wonderful”
- Thinking about turning Ignitia into an app
- Looking to work with large companies
- A hurdle is making people aware of how different is tropical weather and forecasting
- Tropical crops are particularly sensitive to rain changes
- Droughts are a particular concern
- People around the world don’t seem to be aware of how dependent they are on tropical farming: cocoa, coffee
- Small projects with the World Food Program, agricultural acceleration
- Supporting Sustainable Development Goals
- Across Africa: Senegal
- Ignitia was selected as a “Google X Moonshot”
- Organizations are always looking for long-term impact
- Ignitia has really been around for around 2 years
- Has quickly gained credibility
- Sustainability, CSR
- Farming intervention
- Farming services marketing
- Agricultural Open Data Network
- Mobile usage
- Weather Platform Landscape
- Solar
- “Africa is such a place for inspiration”. “It’s admirable, and it’s exciting”
Please share, participate and leave feedback below!
If you have any feedback you’d like to share for me or Sable, please leave your thoughts in the comment section below! I read all of them and will definitely take part in the conversation. If you have any questions you’d like to ask me directly, head on over to the Ask Stephen section. Don’t be shy! Every question is important and I answer every single one. And, if you truly enjoyed this episode and want to make sure others know about it, please share it now:[feather_share show=”facebook, twitter, linkedin, google_plus” hide=”reddit, pinterest, tumblr, mail”]
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