PrAEctiCe is an EU Horizon project which helps small-scale farmers in their agro-ecological transition by exploring the potential of agro-ecological practices in East Africa to address the issue of food insecurity. PrAEctiCe provides a novel agro-ecology indicator set focusing on circular water-energy-nutrient systems of integrated aqua-agriculture, while keeping the smallholder needs on the spotlight.

Three Living Labs were designed, constructed and operated with the aim of unifying community knowledge and needs, with scientific expertise. These demonstration pilots became the basis of data production and validation for a Decision Support Tool (DST) which was developed by the University of Maribor. This tool realises PrAEctiCe’s vision and objectives, establishing agro-ecological guidelines for farmers through data collection and practical approaches to different challenging situations.

The DST comes in the form of a mobile application and a desktop interface. Users update their farm profile page with data from their crops, soil type, water quality, fish stock, crop and fish harvests, and any other activities. At the same time, they get updates on the solar activity, weather conditions and water quality parameters from real-time sensors, which also alarm them in case of emergency. Finally, the app delivers recommendations and advice to the farmers and other users, on how to proceed with their farming practice or how to deal with an issue that they could be facing.

AquaBioTech Group played an important role in the development of the DST, by assisting the construction of the Living Labs (design and installation of the water quality monitoring system) and by consulting the operators of the Living Labs and the application developers, upon fish farming practices. The DST can be an important partner to farmers, employees, advisors and public servants, providing overview and support in real-time, eliminating time and distance barriers.