By Happy Mulolani

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has introduced a digital platform dubbed Field Pulse to strengthen farm record-keeping, improve production planning and decision-making, bring extension services closer to participating farmers, and lay the foundation for wider adoption of digital agriculture.

Field Pulse enables farmers and camp officers to develop crop calendars, schedule and record field operations, track harvests and sales, and report pests and diseases throughout the production cycle. The application runs on any smartphone through the web browser, without installation, and continues to work where the network is weak or absent, records being synchronized automatically once connectivity is restored. These digital records help farmers assess enterprise performance, make informed management decisions and manage their farms as commercially viable businesses.

Speaking during the practical training on the use of the Field Pulse application at the FAO Country Office in Lusaka recently for 18 lead farmers, 10 agriculture officers, and 15 FAO personnel, Lusaka Provincial Agricultural Coordinator, Derrick Simukanzye, said the digital platform will enable farmers manage their horticultural enterprises more effectively by improving production planning, strengthen farm records and enable informed decision-making throughout the production cycle.

“One of the challenges facing our vegetable farmers has been limited record keeping, making it difficult to plan production according to market demand, monitor production costs and determine whether their enterprises are profitable,” Mr Simukanzye said.

He explained the Field Pulse will enable farmers manage their horticultural enterprises more effectively through improving planning, strengthening farm records and enable informed decision-making throughout the production cycle.

“For extension officers, the platform enhances the delivery of advisory services by enabling them to remotely monitor crop progress, review farm records, identify emerging production challenges and provide timely technical guidance,” Mr Simukanzye stated.

He asserted this approach complements routine field visits while allowing extension support to become more responsive efficient and data-driven.

“Pest and disease observations recorded during field visits, including photographs, symptoms and the control measures recommended, are consolidated in a shared library where the effectiveness of each treatment is subsequently recorded, building a practical reference for the whole extension network and the local farmers,” Mr Simukanzye said.

FAO Lead Technical Officer for the Smart Farming for Sustainable Livelihoods Project, Magliocchetti Lombi, explained Field Pulse is more than a record-keeping application.

“Digital agriculture is transforming the way farmers and extension officers work together,” Mr Lombi said.

He narrated that the farm management tool allows farmers to make informed decisions and also allows extension officers to provide timely technical support based on real-time field information. Through integrating digital technologies with the monitoring and evaluation of climate-smart production practices to help farmers improve productivity, profitability and resilience.

“It is also important to state that farmers retain access to their own records at all times, each extension officer sees only the farms assigned to them, and the platform collects no sensitive personal data,” Mr Lombi said.

He described greenhouses as equipped with low-cost sensors, the application displays temperature, humidity and field measurements coupled with local weather forecasts, and can issue alerts when conditions exceed defined thresholds, thereby allowing irrigation and ventilation decisions based on measured values rather than estimates.

“For extension officers, the platform enhances the delivery of advisory services by enabling them to remotely monitor crop progress, review farm records, identify emerging production challenges and provide timely technical guidance,” Lombi said.

The inception of Field Pulse is expected to not only empower farmers and extension staff but also generate structured field-level data to strengthen project monitoring, learning and reporting. This digital application will assist in promptly gathering information to enable FAO and partners to assess adoption of improved practices measure project results and continuously refine technical support provided to the target farmers. participating farmers.

It is anticipated the introduction of Field Pulse marks a significant step to integrate digital agriculture into smallholder horticulture. This initiative is one of the project’s broader investments in protected cultivation, mechanization, fertigation and climate-smart production practices, ensuring farmers are equipped with bot the physical infrastructure and the digital tools needed to improve productivity, strengthen resilience and produce safe, high-quality, market-oriented vegetables.

Ultimately, as beneficiary farmers embark on the production process in the project’s greenhouses and shade net structures, digital record keeping will play a key role in daily farm management, support better decision-making, improved resource-use efficiency and more competitive horticultural enterprises.