How Tanzanian Farmers Are Using AI-Powered Crop Disease Detection

A locally-built mobile app leveraging computer vision helps smallholder farmers identify and treat crop diseases before they spread.

A new app developed by students at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology is helping farmers fight crop diseases using just their smartphones. The app uses AI to analyze photos of plant leaves and diagnose diseases with 95% accuracy.

Once a disease is identified, the app provides treatment recommendations in Swahili. "It is like having an agricultural extension officer in your pocket," said a farmer in Arusha.

The project has received support from the Ministry of Agriculture and is being rolled out to extension officers nationwide.