International nonprofit TechnoServe and technology platform Alteia have announced that they have signed a partnership agreement that aims to improve cashew farming practices through the use of aerial drone imagery and artificial intelligence.
This collaboration is part of TechnoServe’s CajùLab project, funded by the Wehubit program of the Belgium Development Agency Enabel and further supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Benin’s cashew cultivation has expanded more than tenfold in the past two decades, now accounting for around 17% of the country’s exports ($437M) – the second-largest export commodity after cotton – and providing income for 200,000 farming families. Cashew production is also an opportunity for climate mitigation through tree planting. However, there are still challenges to be addressed in order to improve productivity and environmental benefits. In particular, land pressure can lead to environmentally detrimental farming practices, such as monocropping and land clearing for farm expansion. Arming farmers with climate-smart agricultural skills is essential for ensuring that production can be sustainably increased. For that reason, it is important to generate objective and quickly accessible data that helps provide targeted training to farmers.