16-07-2025
Now, farmers get expert agri-advice at their fingertips
16 July 2025 21:25
MAYS IBRAHIM (LIWA CITY)Questions about crop care are part of every farmer's day, but the answers are often buried in academic papers or require bringing in experts who are miles away. This Emirati entrepreneur is changing that by providing timely and reliable expert guidance at farmers' Al Kirbi spent the past five years developing Fesilah, a mobile application that cuts through the barriers of distance and complex scientific literature.
In an interview with Aletihad at the 21st Liwa Date Festival in Liwa City, he explained how this tech-solution operates as an all-in-one agricultural knowledge base. Its vast repository of resources includes more than 3,700 scientific articles, carefully curated and summarised to just two pages for easy reading - a crucial feature for busy farmers who may not have the time to sift through lengthy research range from seed selection and irrigation techniques to sustainability, plant diseases, post-harvest practices, and even agricultural app also catalogues over 750 varieties of domestic, foreign, and seasonal crops, along with details on more than 750 international and local agricultural exhibitions, and over 650 global conferences and information access, the smart application provides a virtual "Dr. Fesilah" service, according to Al allows farmers to communicate with a team of expert agricultural engineers for tailored advice on cultivation methods, irrigation systems, fertiliser use, pruning techniques, post-harvest handling, or diagnoses and treatments for plant health launched only five months ago, the application has already attracted over 15,000 agricultural users across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman, with plans to expand globally and support additional languages.
Inspiration Behind the App The idea was born from Al Kirbi's experience working in an administrative role in the public sector, where he witnessed firsthand the difficulties farmers face without immediate access to expert guidance."It's hard for agricultural engineers to be onsite all the time," he said. "Fesilah solves that by bringing expert advice directly to farmers' phones."Al Kirbi believes the app can play a vital role in bolstering regional food security. By offering accurate, localised guidance, Fesilah empowers farmers to increase yields, reduce waste, and adopt more sustainable practices, he said.
The app's name, Fesilah, is derived from the Arabic word for a young offshoot of a date palm. According to Al Kirbi, the concept is also inspired by a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which encourages planting trees even if the world were coming to an end.
