CO2 Emission & Agro Decision System in Africa
AFRIT is working with Afrisciences
(Germany) to develop a system that monitors, records and analyzes the effect of
CO2 in many African cities. This will be
one of the earliest works to provide data on this issue in sub-Sahara Africa.
We understand that African policymakers have been working on environmental and
health issues related to CO2 emission; however, few raw data exist to help
policymakers make informed decisions.
In the first stage of the project, the CO2 distribution in
different cities will be measured over a long period of time, using a set of
distributed CO2-sensors and decision system under development. Our system has
the capacity to incorporate other gas sensors.
The gathered data will then be used to derive a distribution pattern of
the pollution in the city. The core of
this system is embedded microelectronics and wireless module that enable
wireless data transfer.
In the second phase of the project, the gathered data will
be analyzed in order to evaluate the impacts on human health and environment.
Based on those results, recommendation will be made to the corresponding governments
for appropriate measures to be taken. We are developing a pricing model where cities can charge polluters based on CO2 readings from our device. No argument, data will show how much you are polluting and you will have to pay.
This system is developed as an open platform where the sensors could be adjusted to measure rainfall, humidity, temperature, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, wind speed, wind direction, etc as typical in farms. We log them and farmers can decide the states of the farm without stepping out of their homes. Just have your cellphone and you will know if it rained hundreds of miles in the farm.Yes, you can apply NPK fertilizer because the crop is not getting enough. And you know before you even have to be physically present in the farm. This is innovation and please support us. Let's make farming in Africa a science and not 'luck based'.
Left: clear sky; Right: polluted sky from a truck in Yaoundé
Preliminary Results
These are some of the modules and data we have. This is microelectronics driven as you can see. It is going to be ridiculously cheap.
Partners on this project are:
African Sciences and Technologies Association (Afrisciences), Germany*
African Institution of Technology,
USA
University of Potsdam, Institute of
Informatics, Deutschland, Germany
Technical University of Chemnitz, Deutschland,
Germany
Ecole Nationale Superieure
Polytechnique, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Federal University of Technology,
Owerri, Nigeria
* AFRIT founder is a proud founding
and Board member of Afrisciences