Ignitia has developed a unique weather forecasting model that enables smallholder farmers to grow and improve their yield sustainability.
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 96 percent of cultivated land is rain-fed. Changing rainfall patterns due to climate change is a significant concern. In fact, weather accounts for up to 80 percent of the yield gap experienced among farmers, making reliable weather information crucial for better yields, reduced costs and risks, and climate resilience.
Ignitia is an external startup supported by WFP that works in 11 countries to deliver localized forecasts to farmers through an advanced physics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) predictive model optimized for the tropics that is twice as accurate as global models. It provides farmers with reliable weather information, location and crop-specific climate-smart agricultural advice to enable farmers to grow and improve yield sustainably.
To date, Ignitia has provided services to 2.8 million smallholder farmers of which approximately 700,000 are recurrent. In the sprint programme, WFP is supporting Ignitia with grant funding to further refine and validate its agribusiness and agripreneur business models.
