This project comprises of a comprehensive initiative called InfoRange, aimed at increasing efficiency in rangeland-based livestock value chains through machine learning approaches and digital technologies.

Rangeland-based livestock production, a significant contributor to the agricultural GDP of eastern and southern African countries, relies minimally on external inputs but heavily on knowledge and information. InfoRange, led by Prof. Dr. Brigitte

Kaufmann from DITSL - German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Transdisciplinary and Social-ecological Landuse Research, embarks on a journey to revolutionize mobile pasture-based livestock husbandry through digitization.

Collaborating closely with livestock keepers, herders, veterinarians, and other stakeholders, InfoRange harnesses digitization to enhance pasture management and veterinary care. The project leverages ICT solutions, including mobile phone applications, to integrate user-generated information with remotely sensed data. 

The InfoRange project  uses digitisation to make mobile pasture-based livestock husbandry more efficient, developing ICT solutions together with user groups – i.e., livestock keepers and herders as well as veterinarians, among others. This involves bringing together diverse stakeholders’ knowledge to work out what digital solutions for better pasture management and veterinary care might look like and what is needed for successful use of the ICT solutions.

Similar to the geotagging of photos and of live traffic reports, user-generated information will be uploaded into a mobile phone application. This will then be combined with remotely sensed data. Through image processing and machine learning, the visual rangeland scoring will be digitalised and the output fed to mobile phone applications as well as availed for scenario analyses.

InfoRange's Aims are to:

InfoRange's goal is to improving rangeland use and governance and increasing resource-use and production efficiency in rangeland-based livestock production through digital and ICT applications/services that permit user-generated information acquisition and transmission

InfoRange's objectives are to:

-Improve decision-making tools at various governance levels using citizen science.     

- Adapt and develop ICT tools to support rangeland management and veterinary services

-Enhance the relevance and accessibility of digital services for rangeland users.

Approach

Perceptions of rangelands vary widely, depending on the value we place on what we see, and what is worth knowing, sharing, and protecting. Furthermore, the discipline, scale, and methods of data collection and analysis change what is seen. To address the needs of pastoral communities, their values, needs, and requests must be integrated into the research process.

 The link to the InfoRange Website: InfoRange