The activities include :
1) Frass fertilizer for crop immunity. NESTLER has developed and validated techniques to utilize frass fertilizer for crop immunity against pest infestation. Moreover, insect frass fertilizer as a regenerative input for improved biological nitrogen fixation and sustainable bush bean production was demonstrated under open field conditions.
2) Livestock and fishery feed recipes. NESTLER has developed and validated more than 25 feed recipes that meet the nutrient requirement for poultry and fish under farmer field conditions. The impact of Black Soldier Fly insect (BSF) protein as a substitute for soybean meal and sunflower seed cake on layer chicken performance and profitability has been established, showing significantly higher egg production (on average more than 85%). Similar results apply also to African catfish/ Nile tilapia
3) IoT tools for crop, livestock and aquaculture monitoring.
- SynField: Synelixis has expanded the SynField product family to support more than 30 low-cost sensors (air, leaf, and soil characteristics). Already installed in all 6 African countries.
- SynAir: Synelixis has developed the SynAir to measure Ammonia (NH3), Particulate Matter (PM1.0 PM2.5 PM4, PM10), CO2, Temperature, Relative humidity. Already installed in Rwanda and Ethiopian pilots.
- SynWater: Synelixis has developed the SynWater system that monitors water Temperature, pH, Oxidation-Reduction-Potential (ORP), Dissolved-Oxygen (DO), Electrical-Conductivity (EC). Already being installed in Rwanda and Ethiopian pilots.
- Crop quality handheld: UCL has implemented a low-cost handheld that may evaluate in-situ crop quality of Casava.
5) Automated monitoring services for crop yield and livestock wellbeing. The NESTLER consortium has worked towards implementing mobile apps and ML algorithms towards automated monitoring services.
- Crop disease & pest identification. Agri and Synelixis have developed applications capable of aggregating information regarding cop conditions and identify specific crop diseases and pests, such as Armyworms, Corn bores, Aphids (Maize and cereal), Tuta Absoluta (Tomatoes), Beetles, aphids (Coffee) and Locusts (Various Crops).
- Poultry and Fishery wellbeing monitoring. RiniSoft has developed a system that is ample to validate the wellbeing and health conditions of poultry and fishery.
- Risk Assessment & Flood prediction. Based on weather data in Cameroon, AGRI has trained and tested flood prediction models using five different classification techniques .
6) Twelve (12) pilot sites in six (6) African countries have been establish.
