Ignitia — a tropical weather forecasting tech company – uses a proprietary weather forecasting model to produce highly accurate rain forecasts for West Africa. They use Information Communication Technology (ICT) to send GPS-specific daily, monthly, and seasonal forecasts via text message.

Ignitia’s innovation boasts an 84% weather prediction rate

Ignitia’s innovation boasts an 84% weather prediction rate; a remarkable advancement, considering traditional global weather models predict weather at less than half that accuracy.

Ignitia currently has over 85,000 households paying for its annual subscription to its localized mobile weather forecasts via SMS, benefitting 327,080 users overall in Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Senegal. Based on studies of a subset of farmers, the SWFF program estimates that paying farmers have grown up to 284,000 tons of produce, increasing crop yields by 47% on 135,000 hectares of land.

“Using the forecasts more than doubled my yield last year,” says Enoch Addo, one of the farmers that have benefitted from the service, according to iAfrikan. Ignitia have planned publicity campaigns that will target a female audience through the use of IVR and radio dramas.

USAID, Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Government of South Africa, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands provide this innovator with funding and technical assistance.