RiceAdvice Lite can help government programmes address fertilizer misuse, weak extension coverage and suboptimal rice management that reduce productivity and threaten food security across Sub-Saharan Africa. The Android and web-based tool provides field-specific recommendations on planting dates, fertilizer rates and timing, and other good agricultural practices for irrigated and rainfed lowland rice.

To integrate the technology into a government programme:

• Prioritize major rice-producing areas where farmers have limited access to extension services, fertilizer is frequently misapplied or productivity remains below potential.

• Target smallholder farmers, including women, young people and resource-poor households. Use extension agents or service providers where farmers lack smartphones, connectivity or digital literacy.

• Provide extension teams with smartphones or tablets, internet access and training on collecting field information and generating recommendations.

• Profile farmers’ growing conditions, current practices, available fertilizer, production budgets and yield objectives to generate locally relevant advice.

• Validate and localize recommendations with national rice research and extension institutions before large-scale deployment.

• Establish demonstration plots showing the results of recommended planting windows, fertilizer management and other practices.

• Integrate the tool into public extension campaigns, farmer-field schools and input-support programmes rather than operating it as a stand-alone application.

• Develop accessible communication in relevant local languages and combine digital recommendations with face-to-face, radio or group-based support for farmers with low literacy.

• Budget for devices, connectivity, training, recommendation validation, demonstrations, technical support, communication and application maintenance.

• Establish farmer-consent, data-protection and quality-assurance procedures for information collected through the platform.

• Partner with AfricaRice, CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy/SFSP, national rice research institutes, extension services, farmer organizations, input suppliers and digital-service providers.

• Track farmers reached, recommendations generated, adoption of advice, fertilizer-use efficiency, planting timeliness, rice yields, production costs, farmer satisfaction and participation by women and low-income groups.

• Sustain adoption through train-the-trainer systems, integration into national extension budgets, continued local validation and a network of extension agents and service providers supporting farmers who cannot use the application directly.

The technology has been tested and adopted in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Sierra Leone.