Powered by Bayer, FarmRise, a platform for Android mobile devices which provides agronomic information and counsel to smallholder farmers, has signed a Memorandum of Association with International Rice Research Institute, an international agricultural research and training organisation.

FarmRise and IRRI will offer nutrition advisory to farmers and provide personalised crop management recommendations for rice and wheat grown in rain-fed and irrigated areas.

Both the organisations will conduct an in-depth study with farmers on the usability and share the experience with the paddy growers. The initiative will address the farmers’ imbalance in fertilizer usage, thereby reducing the overall cost and improve the net yield.

Simon-Thorsten Wiebusch, Country Divisional Head, Crop Science Division of Bayer for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, said, to address the diverse needs of smallholder farmers, it is imperative to provide field-specific crop and nutrient advisory to optimise yields and income.

Bas Bouman, leader of the Sustainable Impact Platform, International Rice Research Institute, said, an advisory mechanism that takes into account field-specific information and provides advice on nutrient management can address the constraints that limit their yield and profit.

As part of this collaboration, agronomy advisory will be provided to rice growers, with a scope of expanding the services across the South-East Asia in future. The target group is paddy growing farmers and agriculture extension personnel. The aim is to educate them about this activity to get site specific and right fertilizer recommendations based on soil fertility profiles.

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