LiteFarm

LiteFarm

litefarm.org

The CSFS, in collaboration with farmers and cluster members, are working on a free, open-source web app to advance sustainability science and help farmers improve their financial and environmental management.

Project Leads

Kevin Cussen, Product Lead

Hannah Wittman, CSFS Associate and Professor at the Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability and the Faculty of Land and Food Systems

Zia Mehrabi, Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder

Funding

Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), USI Sustainability Scholars Program, VPRI Research Excellence Cluster (Diversified Agroecosystems), Weston Seeding Innovation Fund, InterAmerican Foundation (USA), and Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC.

 

About the Project

LiteFarm was developed by a team of scientists, farmers, designers, developers, CSFS staff, and undergraduate students to help improve sustainable farming through the democratization of agricultural technology. LiteFarm is built to both help individual farmers with their day-to-day operations, and to help the wider farming community through identification of solutions for better farm management practices and outcomes.

The key feature that separates LiteFarm from the many farm data management tools currently available to farmers is that it is a completely community-driven, not-for-profit, solution which joins scientists and farmers together to try and solve the problems of climate change, sustainable farming, biodiversity decline, and the production of healthy and nutritious food. LiteFarm has been created as a public good. The platform is built to tackle the many socio-ecological dimensions of farming and has engagement across a wide spectrum of partners with a long-term interest in making the world a better place.

LiteFarm will be ready for a beta release in 2020, and it will continue to be developed, with farmers and researchers working together to create new modules and features into the future. The app currently has drummed up interest for early testing in Canada, the USA, and Latin America.

If you’re a farmer or researcher and would like to learn more about LiteFarm or participate in the project please contact Kevin Cussen.

External Links and Publications

“Digitalization and agroecology: a challenging marriage? Summary of an e-conversation”, July 17 to August 2, 2023.

“International cooperation project starts construction of Agroecology indicators in Latin America” (Portuguese original: “Projeto de cooperação internacional inicia construção de indicadores da Agroecologia na América Latina”), Cepagro – Centro de Estudos e Promoção da Agricultura de Grupo, January 22, 2021.

“Agroecology in Latin America: building paths” (Portuguese original: “Agroecologia na América Latina: construindo caminhos”). Cepagro – Centro de Estudos e Promoção da Agricultura de Grupo.

Webinar Presentation at #CCOSS (La Cumbre de Contribuidores de Open Source Software) 2020: “Agrotech – LiteFarm – OpenTEAM”

“New Digital Farm Tool Launches for Farmers” LFS ReachOut Magazine

“There are Apps for Everything . . . But Do They Really Help Farmers?” The Canadian Organic Grower

LiteFarm and CSFS join OpenTEAM, the First Open Source Technology Ecosystem In the World To Address Soil Health and Mitigate Climate Change

PI Mehrabi leads Baselines working group for the CGIAR Community of Practice on Data Driven Agronomy