An advisor in their pocket
659 million people worldwide live on less than $2 a day
Most of them are smallholder farmers
Malawi is a sliver of a country in Southeastern Africa with an unpredictable sub-tropical climate prone to extreme weather. The wet season has an abundance of wildlife roaming the lush paradise where a downpour could happen any second. During the dry, cooler season the dwindling animal population collects around watering holes to avoid crocodiles lurking in rivers.
About 80% of Malawi’s population rely on small-scale farming for their livelihoods. And since Malawi is so vulnerable to climate change, a single catastrophic event could take lives and destroy communities. In 2023, Sourthern Malawi was hit by Cyclone Freddy, unleashing six months of rain in just six days, causing severe floods and landslides. Over 560,000 people were displaced and many of them lost everything due to the disease in farmers’ fields, especially the staple soya crop. Smallholder farmers like Anna Chimalizeni were left with nothing.
“In that moment of loss, I asked myself, how will I provide for my family?” says Anna Chimalzeni, Farmer and Farmer Support Agent (FSA), Opportunity International.
659 million people worldwide live on less than $2 a day, and most of them are smallholder farmers whose survival depends on successful crop yields. Many have no way to recover in the event of an extreme disaster, but there is an organization that has pledged to help. Opportunity International is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering people with vulnerable livelihoods. They offer financial services, training, and support to help farmers build sustainable futures with small business loans, savings, and insurance. With their network of over 47 partners in more than 20 countries that utilize group lending and local staffing, they’re able to scale innovative solutions that give families the ability to thrive.
Human-centered AI
Opportunity International is helping farmers in Malawi with a generative AI chatbot focused on improving agricultural practices. They’re leveraging human-centered AI that empowers farmers to secure a more sustainable future. Ulangizi, which means “advisor” in Chichewa, is using responsibly developed AI to strengthen Opportunity’s network of Farmer Support Agents (FSAs), spread sustainable agriculture practices, and help more farmers overcome extreme poverty.
“For over 50 years, Opportunity International has been dedicated to alleviating poverty around the world,” says Greg Nelson, CTO of Opportunity International.
To make this happen, Opportunity interviewed farmers and FSAs right after Cyclone Freddy to learn more about their challenges. Opportunity then collaborated with AIS Partners and Artefact to develop a Microsoft Azure-based AI solution called Ulangizi AI that immediately and accurately answers farmers’ questions. The chatbot provides authoritative information in English, the official language of Malawi, and Chichewa, the national language, by text and voice.
Ulangizi AI was built as an open platform chatbot that gives farmers the ability to send text, audio, or images through WhatsApp, enabling it to be used in rural areas without broadband coverage. From there, Azure AI speech-to-text decodes voice messages, while machine translation services convert prompts in English. The chatbot uses information from the Malawian Ministry of Agriculture’s data that’s stored in an Azure database, and large language models generate answers in a conversational tone. Farmers can also send photos of their crops and livestock for analysis, and are able to get credible information on how to solve challenges.
Historically, it’s been very difficult for farmers in the Global South to get access in a timely way to the answers they need.
Greater yields and better profits
Hundreds of Farmer Support Agents (FSAs) have been trained as intermediaries between the tech and the 100,000 households they support. This ensures that farmers without mobile phones will be able to access valuable information. Due to how knowledgeable FSAs are, they’re able to respond with insightful answers that help farmers apply Ulangizi recommendations to any questions they have.
Most smallholder farmers produce a fraction of their potential yields and this limits their financial mobility, but when they approach farming like a business, their lives often transform for the better. Ulangizi AI is helping them plant more, increase their herds, hire laborers, and improve the economy for their communities. With the chatbot, farmers are learning better ways to care for the right crops and produce more bountiful harvests. “Being able to save their livelihood is dependent on how quickly farmers know the challenges and how to solve them,” says Ama Akuamoah, Director of Market Engagement, Opportunity International.
The chatbot provides farmers with details about how much seed they need per acre along with forecasts, giving them an advantage over severe and unpredictable weather patterns. And when their crops are thriving, market data helps them know when to harvest and sell for the greatest profit. Opportunity’s FSAs are also teaching farmers how to steward the land in more sustainable and regenerative ways. With this knowledge, farmers will have more free time to learn new skills or start another business, and they can use the extra money to take care of their families and their homes.
Opportunity International anticipates that investments in AI will cut the cost of training new FSAs by more than two-thirds, making it possible to grow its FSA program even more. Ulangizi AI will help educate new FSAs much faster and empower them with information that helps millions of smallholder farmers. Ulangizi AI is just the beginning of how Opportunity is leveraging technology. They’re dedicated to developing a suite of AI-powered solutions that support agriculture, education, and upward mobility in Malawi, Kenya, Ghana, and beyond.
I love when I see them improve their livelihoods and share their achievements with us. This is what gives me joy.
