Innovations

World’s only tropical wx forecaster helps farmers

A company that provides the only weather forecasts for farmers in the tropics is looking for investors to grow their network. Lizzie Merrill, project manager at Ignitia, based in Ghana, says they provide weather forecasts via text to farmers in West Africa and they do so with 84% accuracy. She says it’s a tool for small scale farmers to get the most out of their yields. In this interview, she tells the story of Enoch, who waited to apply expensive pesticides to his crops because Ignitia provided him with a forecast that called for rain, and rain it did.

Brownfield interviewed Lizzie Merrill at the 2016 Ag Innovations Showcase at the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis.