AGROSAVIA launches the Pro version of the App °AHoRa

• This App allows producers, especially those with a family farming approach, to improve planning and decision-making on agronomic practices in plantain and banana plantations in the face of climate variability.
• The launching was performed in the Marconia auditorium in the Caribia Research Center in Sevilla, Zona Bananera (Magdalena).

 

Santa Marta, Magdalena. May 8, 2023. After a year of having launched the Demo version and different workshops and validations with Musaceae producers in the departments of Magdalena and La Guajira, Corporación colombiana de investigación agropecuaria – AGROSAVIA launched the Pro version of the App °AHoRa, which is free of charge and allows crop yield projections from local meteorological and abiotic data.

This App allows quantifying the potential leaf emission rate from a banana plantation, its optimal harvest date, the dose of nutrients that must be applied in crop fertilization, and its water needs, in addition to estimating the weight of the bunch and crop yield.

Martha Marina Bolaños B., Senior Ph.D. Researcher and project leader of °AHoRa, mentioned, "With this App, we seek to facilitate Musaceae, banana and plantain producers, especially those that are part of family farming –namely, small producers– in making informed decisions to carry out timely agronomic practices in their crops and improve the profitability and productivity of these production systems."

Likewise, Carlos Montalvo, analyst of the international banana trading company Uniban, expressed, "We have a very high expectation about the App. I think it is a straightforward and didactic App, which can be very useful for producers as a working tool when making decisions, especially for small producers who are suddenly the ones with the least access to these tools on hand; and for us technicians, I think it will help us a lot agronomically in the field and aim towards becoming more productive."

 

At the same time, Ana Angélica López, a small banana producer, indicated that "We come from the banana-growing zone in the Magdalena sector, and in this region, we have a very changing environment, and we also have to be resilient with the climate and adapt to the circumstances; and one of the things we see with this App is the clear way it shows us the rainfall and humidity, so we can be able to make decisions concerning our plantation, have more confidence in what we are doing and, thus, obtain higher productivity."

It should be noted that the App °AHoRa has its roots in the 2019 Fontagro Call "From Science to Impact: innovations for climate-smart agriculture through AgroTech solutions in Latin Americas and the Caribbean," which provided the resources to finance the project °AHoRa: Musaceae family producers App.

This project was signed in October 2020; however, due to different factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and administrative procedures to sign the agreements between the participating institutions, its formal execution began in March 2021.

One of the first project activities consisted in designing a calculation platform considering previous and validated scientific knowledge, which quantifies the relationship between abiotic factors and the behavior of key Musaceae cultivation aspects. It was complemented by the scientific knowledge of researchers from the executing entities: AGROSAVIA, INIA, and IDIAF, with the participation of the international voluntary advisory committee (CAVI, for its acronym in Spanish).

Subsequently, the validation process of the equations' use and applicability was carried out from its testing with climatic and crop behavior databases. Then, with the participation of UDEP, the App was designed in its Demo version (trial version), and an operating manual was elaborated for this version. Producers and technicians used the App, and the calculations of the App °AHoRa were validated in the field in the banana-producing regions of the three countries. With these inputs, the Demo version of the App was improved, and the Pro version was obtained.