The expected final results from this innovation project is to further improve the Ignitia services’ accuracy, by implementing and integrating a Weather Radar and an Artificial Intelligence system while accelerating the use of new remote sensing applications from the GPS-RO satellites into the initialization procedures of the model. This new highly innovative model will be customized and implemented in a Demonstration Project together with Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) in Nigeria, which could eventually reach 10 million smallholder farmers. The results of this Demonstration Project will provide highly accurate weather and rain forecasts to smallholder farmers in Nigeria who will use this as decision support in order to increase their Agricultural production and to improve their Climate Change Resistence.
As a secondary prioirity this innovation Project will if possible and feasible, test and evaluate new European technology for predicting and measuring rainfall in West Africa using the Mobile Telecom Network radiolinks, and in that case potentially perform a pilot Project with a Mobile Telecom Operator.
The potential impact of the Demonstration Project is expected to be:
+ Increased Agricultural yield for a large number of smallholder farmers in Nigeria
+ Improved Climate Change Resilience for a large number of smallholder farmers in Nigeria
+ A leverage effect on other actions in the NGO development Projects that we co-operate with, such as improved use of fertilizers
+ potentially a decreased deforestation in Nigeria as a result from improved Agricultural productivity
+ a system for early warning that will enable efficient warning for farmers of severe weather
The social and economic challenge that Ignitia address is the combination of low productivity agriculture sector in West Africa leading to poverty and the huge impact of climate change on the agricultural sector in the near future. The technical challenge that Ignitia address is the low accuracy of exisiting conventional weather forecasts in the tropical region.
The wider EU implication of the Demonstration Project is to test, evaluate and showcase new European technology for rain detection and measurement using the Mobile Telecom Network.
The growth of Ignitia will not only create jobs in Sweden but also globally, both for development, sales and distribution. We forecast that over 40 persons will work in the company 3 years after market introduction.
