Phone app to forecast risk of crop failure in Brazil

By Nadia Pontes SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Despite years of experience, Charlei Sousa finds himself struggling to grow maize. A lack of rain took half his last crop, and he says uneven rainfall has for years become a worsening problem in his fields in Montes Claros. "We don't know anymore how and when to grow," said Sousa, a family farmer who plants about 30 hectares (74 acres) of maize in the north of Minas Gerais state, which lies within a semi-arid region of Br