ICARDA and the CGIAR Excellence in Agronomy Initiative (funded by the Gates Foundation) recently developed a groundbreaking digital solution called GeoAgro-MiSR under the Egypt Use Case. This comprehensive tool aims to empower Egyptian smallholder farmers to achieve climate smartness, sustainable intensification, and economic optimization, despite challenges posed by climate change and financial volatility. Egypt's agricultural system is a critical breadbasket in the MENA region. With agriculture primarily reliant on Nile River water for irrigation, Egyptian farmers cultivate various crops, including cereals, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. However, the nation needs help meeting domestic demand, particularly wheat, one of its most important crops. This issue stems from inadequate agronomic practices by farmers who need access to essential information. The GeoAgro-MiSR system represents a powerful digital transformation that serves the national extension system, farmers, youth, and women, providing them with site-specific agronomic recommendations generated from farm analytics. The project envisions a bottom-up and top-down synergy approach to agricultural transformation by leveraging digital tools and engaging stakeholders at different scales.

At the grassroots level, the GeoAgro-MiSR smartphone application offers tailor-made agronomic advisories and services to smallholder farmers. It also facilitates citizen science by allowing users to contribute data to a centralized database. The GeoAgro-MiSR system comprises a centralized server hosted at ICARDA and two user interfaces: the GeoAgro-MiSR app and the GeoAgro-MiSR administrative dashboard. Communication between users and experts occurs via the server, enabling real-time interaction, including the "ask an expert" module and P2P chatting. The system also provides weather forecasts, remote sensing analytics for biophysical variability, and crop-specific agronomic practices. The GeoAgro-MiSR initiative aligns with the urgent need for sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices in the NENA region. GeoAgro-MiSR represents a significant step towards ensuring food security, economic prosperity, and climate resilience for Egyptian smallhold er farmers. By harnessing the power of digital technologies and fostering collaboration between stakeholders, this initiative paves the way for a sustainable future for Egyptian agriculture. It sets an example for other regions facing similar challenges.