Mobile technologies and smartphone apps for agriculture · • Commodity prices • Agricultural trading, bartering 4.Improving supply chain efficiencies • Smart logistics • Traceability

Mobile technologies and smartphone apps for agriculturePat Donovan, GIS lab manager

Virginia Tech University

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Mobile coverage maps of Northern Thailand

Prior to availability of mobile communications in agriculture:• extension agents/ crop advisors• books, farm agency resources• farm field days/exhibitions• personal experience

Introduction of computer then internet:• mapping technologies‐ robust, precise systems but high costs and

training required GIS – geographic information systemsGPS‐ global positioning systems

• agriculture softwarelogging data/recordkeepingintegration of soils, terrain, climate

Mobile agriculture and rural development apps by country (2012)

Mobile solutions for agriculture and food distribution1. Providing information to farmers

• Weather• Weed, pest, disease• Soils, fertilization• Farmer helpline

2. Improving access to financial services• Mobile payment systems• Mobile insurance• Micro‐lending

3. Enhancing access to markets• Commodity prices• Agricultural trading, bartering

4. Improving supply chain efficiencies• Smart logistics• Traceability and tracking systems (distribution)

Financial Services:

Mobile payment systems: (Vodafone’s M‐PESA service in Kenya)

Farmers register then pay in or make withdrawals, receive funds from family, pay for goods and services all for small transfer fee

Mobile payments mean less time farmers have to travel, fewer trips to collect payments and can send money home (migrants)

Micro‐Insurance systems

• Protect farmers against losses due to weather• High administrative costs limit buy in• Cheaper index insurance‐ pay out to all holders when threshold is met (weather, pests)• Increasingly, insurance combined with credit‐ part of a value chain finance approach

Micro‐lendingSites put potential investors (lenders) in contact with farmers who need to boost productivity by using high quality seed, agricultural inputs, machinery, animals

experience shows farmers are low‐risk group (high repayment rate)

Financial Services:

KIVA‐making crowdsourced loans to underserved borrowers 80 countries/5 continents

Thai Field partners: Hilltribe Organics: chicken/eggsSiam Organics: organic rice, work w/ grower co‐opsiDE Cambodia: loans to small farmers

Farmers often sell their produce at non‐optimum times or at the farm gate with little knowledge of current market prices

Mobile communications allows connecting with potential buyers for increased prices

Improving access to markets

Tendering platforms: allow farmers, distributors and wholesalers respond to contracts via mobile

Bartering platforms: exchange goods, services and skillsfarmers could barter surplustransient ag workers could advertise skills and find workfarm managers could find workers

Supply chains for produce are complex and with inefficient or lack of communications

Smarter logistics‐ provide food distributors with mobile location, route and speed information to improve fleet management (saving costs and time)

Tracking systems‐ follow agricultural products through the supply chain

Supply chain:

Mobile managementSupplier‐ ag agents can record on site information about expected yields, conditions

Distributors‐ keep track of sales of ag inputs, seed

Mobile technology global differences

Asia N. America/Europe

Key Players mobile operators Platform provider(Google Play, AppStore)

Platform Being developed (Ovi store) easily add apps to platformoften no mobile money provides development support,

payment system, guarantees functionality

Content and hyper‐local information multiple ways of getting info (rural Services and urban)

content often not in digital form substantial info in digital form

Challenges:

Inadequate telecommunications infrastructure major barrier in rural areas

Design and develop user‐centered apps to ensure high adoption rate

Farmers need information based on crop and geography

Assessment of impact‐ ensure proper implementation at field level

Call‐center approach

• Using mobiles, farmers can call for advice from agronomists, alleviates problems due to illiteracy‐ cultivation, irrigation, pest, disease, best practices‐ Database continually updated new information

Mobile technology systems for agriculture: SE Asia and beyond

Jigyasha 7676 (Bangladesh) first mobile based agro‐info service (2009), first year over 1 million calls

Mobile platforms using SMS:

SMS (short message service) very inexpensive, sometimes bundled with phone service• in agriculture: access to price info, local weather, pest and disease, best practices

NOKIA Life (India, Indonesia, China)‐ SMS based, subscription information service for commodity prices, agri‐inputs prices, weather forecasts, agriculture tips and techniques. Indonesia NL focus on animal husbandry, fisheries, etc

RML Agtech (India) originally SMS based service now data enabled, provides local info on commodity prices, crop cultivation and weather, famers subscribe 3000 INR/yr basic ($47)

Tradenet (Sri Lanka) provides users with timely information on agri‐produce price information from three economic centers wholesale agricultural produce. Info disseminated via SMS, USSD and interactive voice.

• In 2010 farmers 10‐15 kilometers from the nearest market obtained an avg increase of 23% on the price/kg of their produce by using Tradenet (Lokanathan, 2010).

SMS platforms (cont’d)

1677 Farmer Information Highway (Thailand)‐ corporate responsibility project by Telenorsubscribers receive messages with market prices• crops, fruits, livestock information• weather and news updates• originally sent 4‐6 SMS messages/day• phase 2 includes video clips, images, etc• Thai government contributes to project• 20,000 subscribers (5,000 using MMS and video content)

PhilRice Text Center (Philippines) since 2004, • avg. 240 messages per day• seed quality and variety info, pest mgmt., rice tips

Data‐enabled devices (smartphones, tablets)• includes operating system and software (apps)• revolutionize knowledge‐based and entertainment industries (music, photos, videos,

books, newspapers• Increasing affordability means access to more although still out of reach of some

small farmers

Philippine Rice Information System (PRISM) smartphone capture of rice information, Dept. of Agriculture collects data

• detailed maps of rice area, season length, yields by region• unbiased damage assessment (typhoon, drought)• improved food security and improve rural livelihoods

Information apps:weathersoilsweeds, pests, nutrient deficiencies specific crop apps‐ rice

Record keeping/tracking:percent green coverphoto logging/GPSfoliar leaf analysis

Micro‐finance loans

Data gathering‐ project management

Smartphone apps for agriculture

Smartphone apps:Weather (Android)

100k‐500k installsReviews complain of heavy data use, some crashes

Smartphone apps:Weather (Android)

50k‐100k installsNo English support

SoilInfo‐ global soils

Available layers:• Organic carbon• Soil pH• Texture fractions• Bulk density• Cation‐exchange capacity• Coarse fragments• FAO WRB soil classes• USDA Soil tax suborders

Smartphone appAndroid + iOS

SoilInfo‐ global soils Smartphone appAndroid + iOS

Percent clayDepth to bedrock (cm) Soil organic carbon (g/kg)

Country catalogs:

SE Asia‐ only Vietnam v. limited catalog

Include chemical solutions, spray tank calculators, etc

Smartphone appAndroid

Agrobase: pest, weed, disease catalog

Agrobase Smartphone appAndroid

Smartphone appAndroid and iOS

Crop Nutrient advisor:

ag nutrient product info, deficiency guide for many crops

Crop Nutrient advisor

Crop Nutrient Interactions:Nutrient deficiencies


Crop Nutrient Interactions Smartphone appAndroid

Rice Doctor‐ diagnose pests and diseases of rice Smartphone appAndroid

This product has been developed by an international team involving –• International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)• University of Queensland, Australia• Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Philippines• Research Institute for Rice, Indonesia

riceXpert‐ National Rice Research Institute Smartphone appAndroid

Fields Area Measure Smartphone appsAndroid and iOS

GPS measurement tool‐ field measurements, planning, fencing

Fields Area Measure Smartphone appsAndroid and iOS

Smartphone appAndroidCANOPEO‐ green canopy cover

http://www.canopeoapp.com/


Quantify percent canopy cover of live green veg • monitor crop growth• grazing mgmt. decisions• quantify damage (hail, drought, disease)• collect, notate and store geolocated photos

CANOPEO

CANOPEO‐ green canopy cover Smartphone appAndroid

Grass Snap‐ Photo‐loggingGrassland monitoring


Grass Snap‐ Photo‐logging Smartphone appAndroid and iOS


BioLeaf: foliar analysis

App for lenders (borrowers submit profile online)Search by country, sector (agriculture)


KIVA: microfinance loans

KIVA: microfinance loans

KIVA: borrower profile Smartphone appAndroid and iOS


• free mobile and web application for easy data collection• collect data using multiple devices: GPS, photos, video• freely hosted project websites‐ data viewed central server (maps, tables charts)

Epicollect5‐ data collection

OpenDataKit (ODK)– data collection

• replaces paper forms for data collection incl. • GPS, images, audio, video, survey forms• works without cellular or wifi, transfer data to central server later• robust user community (100,000+ downloads)


GIS integration Smartphone appAndroid and iOS

Pat Donovan Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Dept.Virginia Tech University [email protected]

Questions?

Thank you

Mobile technologies and smartphone apps for agriculture · • Commodity prices • Agricultural trading, bartering 4.Improving supply chain efficiencies • Smart logistics • Traceability

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