Mobile Applications for Agriculture — The New Age Boon
By Tejatha Hallur
India is a country known to have a relatively larger concentration of population relying on agriculture as a primary occupation. In 2016, an estimated 65% to 70% of the Indian population was known to be dependent on this sector in various forms for their livelihood. Agriculture is not only cultivation of the crops but also the management of its supply chain. This heavily relies on the data and the communication between the vendors (cultivations and agriculturists) and the consumers. Conventional ways of managing the supply chain and the distribution were primarily based on word-of-mouth communication. Moreover, the growth in communication channels and the introduction of smart farming techniques indicated a catalyst effect in the sector not only in the cultivation techniques but also in the distribution channels. This can be considered as an indication that rural India is significantly heading towards technology and digitalization, and the growth rate was projected to be reaching up to 48% of this total share in the coming years (Jain & Sanghi, 2016).
As with any technological adaptation, agriculture has its own set of challenges and advantages when it comes to the implementation and adaptation of smart farming techniques. Though smart farming and its affiliated techniques are new, farmers are biased towards the technologically inclined ways of farming. With the initiatives such as Digital India Campaign, digital literacy is being promoted in rural India and it is contributing to the success of farming community. This implies that smartphones can be among the highly contributing factors for the digital literacy of farmers and it enabled the distribution of information among the communities at the right time (Singh, et al., 2017).
Mobile Applications for Agriculture
The above given figure represents the life cycle from the beginning i.e., planning of crops to harvesting, packing and taking it to the store fronts and end customers. All these stages require gathering information for various purposes (Mittal, et al., 2010). The software and applications required for better agricultural applications can be categorised based on the following factors;
- Business and Networking Apps
- Weather Apps
- Farm Management
- Disease and Pest Control and
- Learning Management apps
All the above-mentioned factors contribute to the betterment of a particular farm and its farmer. Farmers can get training in certain areas using learning systems. They can use the weather applications to know when to water the farms. Farm management applications are essential especially in smart farming and business and networking applications provide insights to the farmers about the liquidity in price of a particular crop. Some examples of applications designed for the empowerment of farmers are mentioned below.
Kisan Suvidha, 2016
This application was launched with the aim to empower farmers and for rural development. The application primarily provides first-hand information quickly to the accessing farmers. As mentioned above, factor such as the market status, weather, crop protection schemes, agricultural advisories etc. are all provided in a single platform. Hence it is an easy to access utility with its multi-lingual user interface. Along with the information, farmers are also provided with necessary training and IPM practices.
Advantages:
- Multilingual Interface
- All in one platform
- IPM Practices and learning
IFFCO Kisan Agriculture, 2015
This application was designed and launched by the Indian Farmers’ Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd. with the aim to help farmers make informed decisions. The application is managed by the organisation itself and it provides the farmers with customised information in relation to their requirements. Though it was developed prior to Kisan Suvidha, IFFCO managed to incorporate all the required modules that support the betterment of the farmers. The app included agriculture information library along with the essentials in text, image, audio and video formats. The application also provided the information in multiple languages which was one of the strong points for its success.
Advantages:
- Interface in multiple languages
- Agricultural information library
- Availability of information in all media formats
Kisan Yojana
Kisan Yojana is one among the popular agriculture applications for android. The main aim of this application is to inform farmers about all the important government schemes available for farmers. It bridges the communication gap between the government and the farmers. Moreover, the application also provides information about the government schemes based on the location. This helps farmers to choose the best required scheme for their requirements.
Advantages:
- The application provides communication platform
- Provides information about government schemes
- Location based information alerts
Agri App
Similar to the above-mentioned apps, this application excels in bringing information to the end user. Farmers are given up to date information about crop production and protection. This application is differentiated by its High Value Low Product category crop information from the type of crop to soil, climate, maintaining, harvesting, cultivating and storage techniques. One of the advantages is that it provides communication medium with the experts and also promotes video-based learning. Information such as the latest news about crops, online markets for fertilizers, insecticides, etc. are also listed on this app.
Advantages:
- Chat with the experts
- Video based training content
- Information on cost and usage of fertilizers and insecticides
Though these applications are designed by keeping today’s farmers in consideration, this medium of communication faces challenge as the literary rate of the farmers and the rural places is significantly low. Moreover, it is challenging to bring the information to the farmers as some of the farmers in rural areas do not tend to use smart phones. Literacy and inattention of the farmers can be considered as disadvantages. However, it is essential to communicate with the farmers for their betterment and for better results in agriculture.
References
Jain, N. & Sanghi, K., 2016. The rising connected consumer in rural India, s.l.: The Boston Consulting Group.
Mittal, S., Gandhi, S. & Tripathi, G., 2010. Socio-economic impact of mobile phones on Indian agriculture, New Delhi: Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
Singh, S., Ahlawat, S. & Sanwal, S., 2017. Role of ICT in Agriculture: Policy implications. Oriental Journal of Computer Science and Technology, 10(3), pp. 691–697.
