CropSuit app to help farmers grow the right crops in the right places

Developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with researchers at IIASA, CropSuit builds on decades of joint research to translate advanced agroecological science into practical decision support for farmers.

By helping farmers plant the best crop for local conditions, CropSuit supports better yields, improved incomes, more efficient fertilizer use and more sustainable land management. The tool comes at a critical time when 1.7 billion people around the world live in areas where land degradation is reducing agricultural productivity.

The application was launched during FAO’s recent Global Conference on Smart Farming, which gathered ministers, policymakers, researchers, and private-sector representatives from around the world to discuss how digital innovation can improve food production while making agriculture more resilient and sustainable.

"Technology does not replace farmers. It gives them better information to make better decisions at the right time and in the right place. CropSuit is one example of how innovation can turn science into practical support for farmers," said Lifeng Li, Director of the FAO Land and Water Division. "The challenge is no longer whether smart farming works. It is whether we can ensure that these tools reach the farmers who need them most."

Better decisions, from planning to planting

The CropSuit application is part of FAO’s Soil Mapping for Resilient Agrifood Systems (SoilFER) program, an initiative funded by Japan and the United States that helps countries in Africa and Central America strengthen their soil information systems by combining advanced soil data, geospatial data integration, crop modeling, and digital decision-support tools.

It builds on the Global Agro-Ecological Zoning (GAEZ) framework developed through a collaboration between FAO and IIASA, and expands access to information on a wide range of crops, including nutrient-dense, traditional and indigenous species with significant potential to improve food security and nutrition.

As part of the SoilFER project, IIASA has updated the GAEZv5 soil suitability assessment used by the CropSuit application. This enables users to estimate crop yields for a wide range of soil types under the climatic conditions of a given location. Users can replace the global soil information from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) with site-specific soil data, providing more accurate local estimates and helping to overcome the limitations of global soil databases in terms of spatial resolution and uncertainty.

"The long-standing collaboration between FAO and IIASA draws on the complementary strengths of IIASA’s scientific rigor and the FAO’s global outreach. This allows local farmers to access the data and expertise needed to increase their crop yields sustainably. This is particularly important for food security in Africa, where current crop yields remain significantly below optimal sustainable levels," says Sylvia Tramberend, Senior Research Scholar in the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program.

The CropSuit app further expands the capabilities of the SoilFER Geospatial Platform by providing an intuitive and user-friendly interface for exploring this open-access data.

Turning soil intelligence into practical advice

The value of the CropSuit app is already being demonstrated through FAO’s program in Zambia. Using detailed soil maps alongside rainfall and other environmental data, the application showed that while maize performed well on some fields, neighboring plots with different soil characteristics were better suited to crops such as cassava, cowpea, and fonio (an ancient cereal grain native to West Africa). The result is more informed crop selection, greater climate resilience, and stronger production potential.

"The heterogeneity of soil resources in Africa requires the best available site-specific data on soils and their properties. Using CropSuit, farmers can apply their local knowledge of their own plots to estimate the sustainable yield potential of their current or alternative crops," explains Günther Fischer, Emeritus Senior Research Scholar at IIASA and one of the developers of the GAEZ framework.

CropSuit is part of an integrated suite of tools under the umbrella of SoilFER, which pioneers new ground for the way it encompasses soil intelligence, addressing multiple issues and stretching from specialized chemical analysis to field advisory services.

SoilFER projects currently being implemented in Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, and Zambia are designed around three core stakeholders: national governments, who benefit from strengthened soil information systems, high-resolution mapping and capacity development; farmers, who gain access to better advisory services and decision-support tools offering economically valuable tips; and soil laboratories, whose analytical capacity is strengthened through equipment, training and standardized methods.

SoilFER strengthens national soil information systems by standardizing field surveys, expanding soil sampling, upgrading laboratories and improving data quality to generate practical recommendations on fertilizer use, crop suitability and sustainable land management. These insights are made available through a free web-based application that can be used by farmers, extension services, researchers, planners and policymakers. Depending on data availability, users can explore crop suitability assessments across participating countries and other areas covered by the GAEZ database.

Adapted from a press release by the FAO. Read the original article.

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