The problem statement asked for a voice-first interface so smallholder farmers without smartphones or stable data could report issues (pest sightings, crop disease, weather questions) by calling, texting, or visiting a simple web form. The system replies in the farmer’s language with appropriate guidance, escalating to human experts when the model is uncertain.
Solution sketch:
- Inbound layer. Twilio (or local PSTN gateway) accepts calls and SMS; web form mirrored.
- Speech-to-text. Local-language ASR, fallback to English.
- Reasoning layer. Classification and retrieval over an agricultural-extension knowledge base.
- Outbound layer. TTS reply by phone; SMS or notification on web.
Outcome: AGRI12 winners. See the UNESCO India-Africa 2022 award page for the full team roster, prize details, and source citation.