Glossary

Below you can find terms that are used in the dashboard with their definitions.

General

Solution/initiative

Products and services that utilise digital tools, digital channels, or digitally-enabled data analytics (e.g., machine learning/ AI) to deliver information, advice, farming input linkages, market access, logistics support, financial services, and decision-making tools directly to smallholder farmers or other intermediaries of smallholder value chains, including extension agents, agro-dealers, agribusinesses, financial service providers and policymakers.

Registered user

Users (individuals, or organisation representatives) that have registered (and have a valid/working account at the specific point in time) for the use of a digital solution or platform.

Use cases

A specific field of application where users use a D4Ag solution or platform to improve their operations towards achieving their objectives.

Farm management & advisory

Digitally-enabled information services and farm management software on topics such as agronomic best practices, pests and diseases, weather, and market prices, including services tailored to the specific farmer, farm, or field that enable smallholder farmers to make decisions that maximise output from their land, improve the quality of agricultural production, and maximise farm revenues and profits via lower costs of production, improved ability to identify markets, and/or better price realisation.

Market linkage & e-commerce

Digitally-enabled solutions that link smallholder farmers to farm inputs (e.g. seeds, fertilisers, herbicides/pesticides), to production and post-harvest mechanisation and other services (e.g. irrigation, tractors, cold storage), or to off-take markets, including agro-dealers, wholesalers, retailers, or even to the end-consumer.

Supply chain management

Digital supply chain management solutions are business-to-business services that help agribusinesses, cooperatives, nucleus farms, input agro-dealers, and other smallholder farmer value chain intermediaries to manage the flow of goods and services across the supply chain.

Finance

Digitally-enabled financial services relevant for smallholder farmers, such as digital payments, savings, smallholder credit, and agricultural insurance, which increase financial access and equip smallholder farmers to improve yields and incomes and invest in the longer-term growth of their farms.

Ecosystem support

Data analytics solutions and digital decision support tools that integrate data sources on smallholder farmers, farms, and markets and convert this information into useful higher level (e.g. country- and value-chain-level) insights and decision tools, supporting for example government policymakers, extension agencies, researchers, agribusinesses, or investors.

Technologies

(Digital) technology: electronic tools, systems, devices and resources that generate, store or process data in digital form.

Advanced visualisation (e.g. Augmented/Virtual Reality)

Adding simulated elements to the real visual world.
VR: simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world.
AR: a system that incorporates a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects.

Aerial photography

Technique of photographing the Earth's surface or features of its atmosphere or hydrosphere with cameras mounted on aircraft, rockets, or Earth-orbiting satellites and other spacecraft.

Agronomic diagnostics equipment (e.g. new types of portable soil, crop and agriculture input testing tools)

Specific software with decision rules and models to ascertain the condition of the crop or soil and any deficiencies or needs (Diagnostics) and determine whether location-specific treatment is necessary and if so, which (Decisions).

Artificial Intelligence

A system's ability to correctly interpret external data, to learn from such data, and to use those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation.
Four categories: systems that think like humans, systems that act like humans, systems that think rationally and systems that act rationally.

Big Data

Although the term refers, in its narrower meaning, to ‘large, diverse, complex’ volumes of data, it is usually extended to also incorporate the processing capabilities to aggregate, store and analyze the same data. Big data is produced in high speed (velocity), and needs to be processed (streaming data). This requires specific techniques (different than working with large volumes of stored data).

Blockchain

Decentralised governance system with an incentive mechanism.

Cell broadcast

Cell Broadcast (CB) is a method of sending messages to multiple mobile telephone users in a defined area at the same time.

Chatbots

Software applications which do on-line chat conversations via text or text-to-speech.

Cloud-based

A cloud-based solution refers to applications, storage, on-demand services, computer networks, or other resources that are accessed with an internet connection through another provider's shared cloud computing framework. In farming, cloud computing can be used in aggregating data from tools like soil sensors, satellite images and weather stations. It is used for big data analytics thanks to storage, speed and computing power capabilities.

Commercial microwave links (CML)

Commercial microwave links (CMLs) are point-to-point radio connections widely used as cellular backhaul. CML networks allow for the quantification of path integrated precipitation because the attenuation by hydrometeors correlates with rainfall between transmitter and receiver stations.

Dashboarding

Type of graphical user interface which often provides at-a-glance views of key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to a particular objective or business process. A form of data visualization.

Data analytics

Processes and performs statistical analysis on existing sets of data. Curating relevant and meaningful insights from the data. Finding answers and gaining insights for problems that we know.

Digital twins

A dynamic virtual representation of a physical object or system, usually across multiple stages of its lifecycle, that uses real-world data, simulation, or machine learning models combined with data analysis to enable understanding, learning, and reasoning. A Digital Twin can be used to answer what-if questions and should be able to present insights in an intuitive way.

Drones

Unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs) that are able to collect spatial information by flying over specific areas.

Farmer videos

Videos integrating contents curated by agronomist and extension specialists with farmer-generated content.

Field data collection devices

Devices which help in obtaining data directly from the location where an event or transaction takes place. Data collection devices do not read or scan data from the source document.

GIS

Aerial platforms and sensors generating fine grained, multi-spectral earth observations.

GPS

Global Positioning System is a navigation and tracking system that uses satellite conections and radio waves. This system can compute the exact geographic coordinates of an object or person on the surface of the earth as long as it has a device that contains a GPS receptor.

In situ sensors (e.g. farm field, livestock, agricultural machinery sensors)

A direct measurement of the measurand in its original place.

IoT analytics

IoT analytics is the application of data analysis tools and procedures to realize value from the huge volumes of data generated by connected Internet of Things devices.

IoT devices + connectivity

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a system of interrelated, internet-connected objects that are able to collect and transfer data over a wireless network without human intervention

IVR

Interactive voice response (IVR) allows humans to interact with a computer-operated phone system through the use of voice and DTMF tones (touch tones) input via a keypad. In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to interact with a company’s host system via a telephone keypad or by speech recognition, after which services can be inquired about through the IVR dialogue.

LBS (Location Based Services)

Location-Based Service is a tracking system that uses mobile phone signals. The tracking is done by using GSM cell towers of local mobile phone service providers. Tracking through LBS is less precise when compared to GPS because the device estimates its position in the area of the cell tower.

Machine Learning

Machine-learning (ML) is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.

Mini satellites, cubesats, nanosatellites

A CubeSat (U-class spacecraft) is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made up of multiple cubic modules. A cubesat is a 10-centimeter cube with a mass of less than 1.33 kilograms.

Mobile applications (smartphones)

A mobile application, most commonly referred to as an app, is a type of application software designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer.

Natural Language Processing

Processes and analyzes large amounts of natural language data. The result is a computer capable of "understanding" the contents of documents, including the contextual nuances of the language within them. Accurately extract information and insights contained in documents as well as categorize and organize documents themselves.

OBD

Outbound Dialing (OBD) is a robust system designed to effectively manage mobile service-provider-initiated outbound calls. The system automatically dials out calls to a list of mobile users provided by the telecom operator.

Radio broadcasting

Transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. The listener must have a broadcast radio receiver (radio).

Rich media

Rich media indicates the use of advanced features like video. In telecom, rich media refers to the use of Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Rich Communication Services (RCS).

Satellites

Artificial satellites creating imagery (scans - not photos) of the Earth.

SMS

Short Message Service

Social Media

Interactive technologies that allow the creation or sharing/exchange of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

Storage and logistics sensors (e.g. RFID)

A direct measurement of the measurand in its original place where the measurand is related to storage and logistics characteristics.

TV broadcasting

Analogue or digital transmission of the audiovisual signals to the final user.

USSD

Unstructured Supplementary Service Data

Weather stations

A direct measurement of the measurand in its original place where the measurand is related to weather characteristics.

Business Growth Stages

Pilot

Test the untested dynamics of the business.

Startup

Bring business idea to life, get business up and running.

Scaling

Business plan is paying off, revenue is increasing and market share and customer base are growing.

Sustaining

“Business runs itself”, strong presence in target market, strong cash flow and unlikely a startup or business with less experience can take over the company’s position.

Business Funding Stages

Pre-seed

Pre-seed refers to the period during which a company's founders are getting their operations off the ground, typically funding the company themselves or with help from family, friends and supporters.
Average ticket sizes: $50K-150K

Seed

Seed funding represents the first official money that a company raises, helping it to finance market research and product development, employ a founding team and determine its target demographic.
Average ticket sizes: $150K-500K

Series A

In Series A funding, investors look out for companies with great ideas and a strong strategy for turning ideas into a successful, money-making business.
Average ticket sizes: $500K-2M

Series B

Series B rounds involve taking businesses to the next level, past the development stage, by expanding market reach.
Average ticket sizes: $2M-10M

Series C

Companies at Series C funding rounds are already quite successful, and would seek additional funding in order to help them develop new products, expand into new markets, or acquire other companies
Average ticket sizes: $10M+