Baqa', June 23 - The National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), launched today the first platform that contains agricultural information made available to farmers. The launching was conducted via zoom technology.
The Minister of Agriculture, Eng. Khaled Hnaifat, valued the role of NARC, in its capacity as the scientific arm of the Ministry of Agriculture launching this application, which is considered a technological breakthrough in the agricultural sector on the national level, promoting the joint efforts of NARC with its strategic partner; FAO in order to achieve sustainable development through upgrading the agricultural sector.
Hnaifat said that the continuous development witnessed by the world requires all of us to move forward to keep pace with these developments through intensifying national efforts and harnessing modern and advanced technologies to serve the agricultural sector, noting that farmers in their communities use their mobile phones to access specialized and applicable agricultural information without delay, to enable them how to secure and improve their rural and agricultural communities for their better livelihoods, especially with the launch of this new application, as the onset for further improvements into the agricultural sector, which will enable farmers and those who have interest in agriculture to benefit from their virtual agricultural assistant efficiently, comfortably and safely, by providing free specialized and agricultural advice relevant to several topics of interest to farmers.
He further emphasized that this application will constitute a start to be engaged in developing other similar applications aim to serving farmers in line with the strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture that is targeting to digitize the agricultural sector, to provide services to farmers that help them face challenges.
The representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Eng. Nabil Assaf, indicated that the Corona pandemic has proven the success and the foresight of Jordan and its institutions towards digitization, which has pursued many achievements. He added that there will also be many opportunities for innovation and improvement of digital updated services in the future, especially with the increase expansion of smart phones and the availability of other developments in technology on a larger scale, to manage agricultural production systems, both plant and animal, in a way that ensures improving their ability to adapt to climate changes and developing agricultural culture for all segments of society through rich and valuable content. This content collects agricultural information, and is reviewed and updated periodically in line with developments and modern technology with the best follow-up methods globally known, to increase production and maximize the economic return from activity based on artificial intelligence techniques, in addition to developing some agricultural systems such as irrigation systems, laboratory analysis of samples and the digital system of the electronic laboratory so that it's linked directly with farmers.
The Director General of NARC Dr. Nizar Haddad, explained the importance of this platform being the first agricultural service platform available to farmers with easy procedures that can be used by all farmers at different educational levels, as it can be easily downloaded from the Google play store on smart phones, indicating that this application includes several themes, namely, animal breeding that provides recommendations for good practices in ruminant, poultry and beekeeping as well as disease control and vaccination schedules; weather and crop calendar theme which provides information on weather forecasts, planting and harvest dates, as well as tips for service operations such as irrigation and fertilization to improve product and increase productivity; harvest and postharvest theme that provides recommendations to farmers for harvest and postharvest operations such as packaging, storage and transportation methods, as well as postharvest diseases.
The agri-market place provides market prices for agricultural products, such as vegetables and fruits in the central market.
In addition to farmers' forum where farmers can connect with experts from NARC, post questions, photos and tips, and get responses either from another farmer or from a recognized expert.
He also stated that the contents are presented in both Arabic and English in written texts, videos and audio recordings. After downloading the application, the user can use it without internet except for the prices and weather, which are updated regularly.
The Assistant Director General, Regional Director of FAO Dr. Abdul Hakim Al Waer, explained that this application came as a result of the massive national efforts between FAO and the experts from NARC, to provide the agricultural sector with agricultural information that will enable farmers to develop their well beings, which will reflected positively on their economics and livelihoods, appreciating these efforts in developing the agricultural sector.