AIRSMAT: Eliminating Guesswork in Agriculture Decision-making

Hamid Ayodeji

Transforming the traditional face of agriculture in Africa is more important than ever today.

As the population is taking a rising curve, the demand for food crops is increasing exponentially.

But the conventional agricultural methodologies often fall short in achieving the required yield volumes to meet the increased requirements.

One of the primary reasons for this is the heavy reliance of farmers on guesswork and estimations based on scanty information of weather and soil conditions along with the need for appropriate fertilizers, crop diseases, and many other aspects. As a result, the farmers and farm owners fail to make informed decisions to improve the yields and ensure food security in the continent.

This is where AirSmat, an agritech company, takes center stage, offering holistic services and solutions for intelligent and precision agriculture using artificial intelligence. The company assists farmers and farm owners in making informed decisions to maximise yields and ensure food security while increasing the bottom lines of agricultural businesses and balancing the demand-supply and price ratios in the market.

The journey of AirSmat began with the co-founders’ vision to empower the farmers and farm owners to move beyond the conventional realms of agriculture and gain necessary knowledge and information.

From forecasting drought probabilities, weather extremities, soil, and moisture conditions, to identifying chemical components and suitability of cultivating crops, AirSmat is helping its customers leverage intelligent farming and agricultural practices, opening doors for enhanced food security in the continent. “Farmers and farm owners can confidently rely on intelligent data obtained through our solutions and not merely on guesswork to improve their yields significantly,” mentions Evidence Osikhena, co-founder & solution architect of AirSmat.

AirSmat brings a broad catalog of solutions that address the core challenges in the farming space. They exclusively offer SmatSat that assists in overcoming the impact of droughts by utilising satellite imageries and weather data, which provide vital information, including historical weather data, daily forecasts, soil temperature, vegetation indices, all in real time. SmatSat allows farmers to determine the need for irrigation based on moisture related information and weather forecasts and make informed decisions to optimise their farming plans. In addition, the company offers SmatSTAR, which enables customers to determine the suitable crop types based on chemical characteristics such as the chemical breakdown and physical properties of soil.

Customers can leverage SmatSTAR for both pre-planting and post-planting phases and obtain vital inputs on nutrient contents of the soil to assess the suitability of cultivating a particular crop on the land, the requirement of fertilizers, soil treatments to adjust soil deficiencies, and much more.

Not only that. AirSmat even offers a solution called SmatMapper to generate 2D and 3D maps to help perform vital analysis such as the spectral analysis of the farmlands, allowing farmers and farm owners to identify the land segments that are hydrated sufficiently.

It also assists in determining nitrogen intake in the soils, overviews of the lands, flow directions and patterns of the water, and several other analyses that enable farmers to plan irrigation efforts efficiently.

These analytical capabilities, coupled with the company’s customer-centric approach have earned it the trust of a vast client base over the years. Right since the beginning, the AirSmat team has focused consistently on addressing the customer issues, utilising their feedback to enhance its portfolio, and innovating to fulfill their changing needs.

“We offer distinct solutions for every customer; we listen to their pain points and align our capabilities accordingly to offer them the suitable solutions,” co-founder & CTO, Adeoluwa Ibikunle said.

AirSmat further seeks to expand its product and service portfolio and introduce several exciting offerings. It will harness the capabilities of IoT to facilitate the monitoring of farms from the comfort of the farmers’ and farm owners’ homes. AirSmat has also built a social media platform that serves as a community for farmers and farm owners to communicate and exchange ideas. All in all, AirSmat is rightly positioned in the agritech industry to pave the way for farmers and farm owners to adopt precision and intelligent farming in Africa, thereby producing bountiful yields and simultaneously gaining

financial stability.

AirSmat recently bagged the Top African Tech Startup – 2021 Award by Startup City in appreciation of the agritech company’s relentless pursuit of excellence and innovation in African Tech Startups technology.