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The leading provider of voice and broadband services, TelOne, has introduced a new product onto the market – Crop Monitoring Service, in a move anticipated to position the company in the smart agriculture sector and transform remote farming.
In an interview with Spiked Online Media at the ongoing Zimbabwe Agricultural Show (ZAS) in Harare yesterday, Mrs. Chipo Mtasa, the TelOne Managing Director said through TelOne Crop Monitoring Service, climate-smart agriculture was made easy.
“Most people here are farmers but struggle with shuttling between the farm and other commitments in the city. But through TelOne Crop Monitoring, mobile farming will be made easy.
“With TelOne Crop Monitoring one simply needs to map in their field through inputting coordinates onto the platform. Thereafter, the platform will start analysing the farm’s conditions producing data on variables like field monitoring, weather data, crop classification, and yield prediction to be used in decision making” Mrs. Mtasa said, adding the product was subscriber based.
Through a partnership with Earth Observing Systems (EOS Data Analytics) and Cloud Services International, TelOne will distribute the Satellite Remote Sensing-based platform, enabling all players in the agriculture value chain to have visibility of field developments remotely on mobile devices.
According to Mrs. Mtasa, the move to diversify into offering a data gathering software solution was aimed at ensuring that players in the agriculture value chain make critical decisions based on high-quality earth observation data.
She also pointed out that TelOne Crop Monitoring was to coincide with the Government of Zimbabwe’s mandate to lead the Smart Agriculture project under the Smart Africa Alliance.
“All these efforts are leading to the launch of the Smart Agriculture blueprint in November 2022. Our objective is to fit into the national strategic trajectory. This platform will entail robust scientific and data-driven methods to ensure maximum productivity and profitability per hectare and also improve national agriculture input,” Mrs. Mtasa said at the product launch in the capital.
On pricing, the TelOne boss said the product had specifically been priced in a manner aimed at making it affordable to farmers, especially small-scale farmers.
TelOne Crop Monitoring’s Standard Package will be USD$2 per hectare per year.
“We will also offer other unique benefits like Farm Zoning Technology for use with precision farming equipment (i.e. smart tractor), Scouting mobile App, Farm Management features, and access to daily high-resolution images as an optional add-on,” she said.
Over the past two years, TelOne has managed to successfully diversify from its main line of business – which is voice and broadband – to offering Value Added Services like its vehicle fleet tracking solution, TelTrack; insurance, Telematics Insurance among others stretching as far as financial services.