What if we bring technology to help third world nations stay competitive? The iPad has found a way through an unlikely fan, farmers. Exprima Media and coffee importer Sustainable Harvest are trying to bring the iPad to coffee co-ops and farmers in East Africa, Mexico, and South America.
Over the past two years, Exprima and Sustainable Harvest have shipped a suite of efficiency and traceability iPad apps--the Relationship Information Tracking System (RITS) suite--for coffee farmers in the developing world. The RITS Ed app features over two hours of training videos in a variety of languages related to everything from agronomy best practices to growing protein-rich mushrooms out of coffee production waste. In 2011, 7 Tanzanian farmers used the app to train their fellow local farmers, adding to 106 farmers in a month.
The RITS Producer app allows producers to track the coffee they process--how much is produced, how it’s milled, payments received, and where its final destination is located. The iPad is also proving to be an attractive tool to keep the younger generation interested in farming, thus attracting children and women into agriculture and preserving their traditions.
We also recommend watching: "Palm Beach Program: iPads for Future Education?" and "Teague: Hacking our Water Behavior".
RITS: Can the iPad Revolutionize Rural Agriculture?
Exprima Media is a software design and development company based in Portland, Oregon. Founded by former college instructor Corey Pressman, Exprima Media creates highly effective applications for the web and native mobile platforms for a variety of clients including the Portland Art Museum, Wiley and Sons, and McGraw Hill.
Sustainable Harvest International is a non-profit organization, based in the United States, that addresses the tropical deforestation crisis in Central America and provides farmers with sustainable alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture.