Global and country-specific advice on crop health and pest management.
This free Android app helps you to use fertilizer more efficiently to optimize your fertilizer investments. It is based on robust crop response functions.
You can use it to:
I have used fertilizer for about five years now. Each season, I used to spend about UGX450,000 to buy 50kg DAP and 50kg Urea and 50kg TSP for my maize and groundnuts. I have used FOT for 2 seasons now and I have realized that I have used significantly less fertilizer and money than before yet the production is comparable. Last season, I invested UGX100,000 for 1 acre of maize, 1 acre of groundnuts and ½ acre of soybean. The FOT output was 22kg DAP & 22kg Urea for maize, 11kg TSP for groundnuts, and 11kg urea for soybean. For maize, I obtained 16 bags (each 100kg) compared to 10 bags before. This shows that I was wasting my resources.
The Fertilizer Optimizer Tool is free for everyone to download and use. It is particularly useful for:
The Fertilizer Optimizer app can provide calculations relevant to 13 African countries. These are Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The Fertilizer Optimizer app helps you to use fertilizer more efficiently so you can optimize your fertilizer investments.
The app will ask you for information on:
Based on robust crop response functions, the app calculates the most profitable combination of fertilizers to purchase and advises you on crop and site-specific application rates. The app also takes into account any integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) practices to further tailor the fertilizer recommendation to your farm.
After entering the required information, click “Calculate” to optimise. Depending on the financial level, and the estimated price of the ready crop at the end of the season, the output example will display as follows:
In practice, manure application and crop rotation are good agricultural practices that add nutrients to the soil. For the most accurate results, previous practices used on the land/farm should be taken into account. The recommendations will change accordingly, as will the total fertilizer type needed per crop. This is because of the existing nutrients in the soil.
On the app, select a container and fill in the required spacing, the click “calibrate fertilizers” to find out how far the fertilizer in the selected fertilizer container will go. If multiple crops have been entered, calibrate for each crop.
Results can be shared via SMS, WhatsApp or other sharing options available on your device.
We’ve created the Fertilizer Optimizer app so that extension workers and farmers can have free access to fertilizer advice, on mobile devices. The app runs offline allowing you to perform optimization calculations in the field. The app will periodically check our servers for updates to the tool.
Global and country-specific advice on crop health and pest management.
Plantwise Factsheet Library App
This free Android and iOS app shares up-to-date information to support the diagnosis and safe management of crop pests.