A team
from the International Centre for Tropical
Agriculture (CIAT) and Biodiversity International in Africa, has developed an
app that scans bananas for five major diseases and one common pest that include
Xanthomonas wilt, Fusarium wilt, and black leaf streak.
Going
by the name Tumaini, The App has been tested in Congo and Uganda will be useful
in early disease detection. The app will further link farmers to extension
workers and upload data to a global system for large-scale monitoring and
control.
A
farmer can easily use this smartphone-based app by taking a photograph of
the plant or the pest and clicking the ‘Scan’ button on the app. Once the
system processes the image, it will depict the diseases in real-time. If the
result return with a probability of a disease or pest, a farmer can access
control measures by clicking on ‘Recommendations’.
The AI tool can detect
five common diseases. It will save farmers millions of shillings lost in the
management of banana diseases and boost control and mitigation efforts in production
losses.
