Institut für Bio- und Geowissenschaften (IBG)

Pflanzenwissenschaften (IBG-2)

DIRECTION app

The DIRECTION project was a three project sponsored by the Southeast Asia – Europe Joint Funding Scheme for Research and Innovation – 2019.

We studied the root growth plasticity of cassava to soil drying, determined from the dose-response curves what the ideal soil water contents are, and established a model which predicts the necessary water to grow cassava. We implemented the model in an mobile phone app, designed in collaboration with farmers. We tested the app in controlled field experiments and on farms, and concluded that it can help farmers to increase yields, compared to no irrigation, and to safe water compared to traditional irrigation, and that the app is a lot cheaper and more reliable than a tested sensor based solution. Below, you find the video made to communicated these findings to farmers and stakeholders.

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