Philemon Sithole

Background

About Philemon Sithole

I love to use my knowlegde to better our society, one person at a time. Starting with I. Ending with we.After completing my Bsc in horticulture and soil science I completed a Master's degree in sustainable agriculture because I am a systems thinker and sustainability in the industry that sustains our bodies is a passion of mine. I have almost four years as a professional in the agriculture industry but the truth is that the industry is always transforming and as a result I am always learning.In these years I have learned to map and analyse several farm maps using QGIS, SQL, Google Earth and Aeroview. The types of maps include contour maps, yield maps (NDVI, NDRE, production maps), and soil maps. The maps I made were used for planning orchard developments, dam developments, visualizing and quantifying the scale of a potential problems, amongst other things. I either had to gather and use drone imagery or satellite imagery provided by Google to design the maps.Data driven decision making and data story telling is important in modern agriculture. Having worked representing investors in the industry, investors need to make decisions based on facts not on speculation. I am experienced in collecting, preparing, processing, analysing and visualizing historical yield data (and other farm data) using Microsoft Excel and R to provide farm production insights for investors. At the end of the day not everyone will be able to grasp the agronomic technicalities behind the yield dynamics on a farm and effective data story-telling is an inclusive method to bridging any knowledge gaps. That is where my technical background and training became needed in the form of quarterly and focus reports.Digitizing the industry in a way that is affordable and accessible to members of the industry is important. As a result I have also learned software development in several languages. I am developing in Flutter with the Dart language so that I can learn to write mobile apps that will make it easier for me (and others) to work in the field. In a side project I have also written my own website using HTML and CSS as a gallery for my photography.