The °AHoRa project ends activities and presents results in Latin America

• The project’s objective was to develop a free access web and mobile App that integrates agroclimatic and ecophysiological information on plantain and banana crops to estimate the foliar emission rate, flowering time to harvest, potential bunch weight, nutrients to be returned to the soil based on harvest extraction and the crop’s water needs.
• The project will benefit 10,745 producers and technicians in three countries: Colombia, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. In addition, it trained 1,189 people in the use of the App.

 

Santa Marta, Magdalena. July 17, 2023. Through events aimed at small producers and technical assistants in the Departments of Magdalena and La Guajira in Colombia, the Provinces of Valverde and Montecristi in the Dominican Republic, and the Department of Piura in Peru, areas where this initiative was implemented, the official closure of the °AHoRa project financed by Fontagro was carried out. °AHoRa: App for Musaceae family producers.

Martha Marina Bolaños Benavides, Senior Ph.D. and international Project Leader, stated that "A total of three closing events were held: one that covered Peru and the Dominican Republic in which 65 people participated, and two events in Colombia held in Dibulla - La Guajira and Santa Marta - Magdalena, in which 125 actors from the banana and plantain chains participated."

Among the most outstanding results of this project are that 1,189 people are now linked to the App and have been assisted by strengthening their technical capacities in Colombia, Peru, and the Dominican Republic; three versions of the App have been produced, one for each country according to the production characteristics of each region, which can be downloaded free of charge through Google Play or the App Store, or consulted through the web.

In turn, the project delivers the validation of the number of degree days required for the emission of a leaf and for the period from flowering to harvest, which constitutes a contribution to the knowledge of the physiological development of Musaceae crops. Moreover, the equation that estimates the bunch weight and yield per hectare, the quantification of nutrient extraction per ton of harvested fruit, and the amount of water required to apply through irrigation.

"On the other hand, we delivered a business plan to guarantee the availability and proper functioning of the App after the project ended, tutorial videos on the use of the °AHoRa App, as well as technological recommendations for the agronomic management of Musaceae, which have reached more than 5,434 views to date," added Bolaños Benavides.

 

Scientific Excellence Award

The °AHoRa project recently received the Fontagro 2023 Scientific Excellence Award in Madrid, Spain, within the framework of the XVIII Annual Technical Monitoring Workshop of projects of the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology - FONTAGRO, an award that recognizes the best project and the team of researchers and institutions that have demonstrated scientific excellence in the execution of activities and fulfillment of objectives of the projects financed by this fund.

 

An alliance among three countries

The °AHoRa project was led in Colombia by the team of the Senior Ph.D. Martha Marina Bolaños Benavides from the Central Headquarters and the Senior M.Sc. Researcher Marlon José Yacomelo from the Caribia Research Center of AGROSAVIA and co-executed in Peru by William Ipanaqué Alama of Universidad de Piura-UDEP and Juan Carlos Rojas Llanque of Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria-INIA, and in the Dominican Republic by Domingo Rengifo of Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias y Forestales - IDIAF.

 

This is how the project was born

The genesis of the °AHoRa project dates back to Fontagro's 2019 Call “From Science to Impact: Innovations for Climate-Smart Agriculture through AgroTech Solutions in Latin America and the Caribbean,” which provided the resources to finance the project.

Subsequently, in October 2020, the project was signed and could initiate. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not until March 2021 that the project began to be executed in the study areas.

In the first instance, activities were carried out contemplating the design of a calculation platform considering previous and validated scientific knowledge, which quantifies the relationship between abiotic factors and the behavior of key aspects of Musaceae cultivation, which was complemented with the scientific knowledge of the researchers of the executing entities: AGROSAVIA, INIA, and IDIAF, with the participation of the international voluntary advisory committee (CAVI).

The validation and applicability process of the equations was carried out from local climatic and crop behavior databases. Likewise, with the participation of UDEP, the App was designed, and operating manuals for the improved versions were elaborated. The process was carried out in continuous communication and work with producers and technicians, who validated the calculations of the °AHoRa App in the field in the banana-producing regions of the three countries, which allowed the project to obtain the Pro version of the App.