Despite the seeming gap between agriculture and mobile app technology, there is growing evidence that using mobile and cloud-based applications not only tackles these sustainability concerns but also generates revenue for both large agriculture-based firms and smallholder farmers.
Such portable, wireless gadgets and mobile technologies have sparked the development of cutting-edge services and applications that are employed in both developed and developing nations’ agricultural supply chains. There are some differences in how these technologies are being adopted in these two markets. Mechanization is more sophisticated and the agricultural work force is considerably smaller in wealthy nations.
Progressive farming in the twenty-first century requires the use of current technologies, including smartphone apps. Many farmers nowadays are creating their own organic food e-commerce platforms so they may communicate directly with consumers or other businesses.
How Has Agriculture Been Affected by Mobile?
Based on a country’s level of development, modern farming technology is applied differently in different ways. In poor nations, where farm management is primarily based on manual labor, it is more likely that food traders and suppliers will adopt agricultural apps. Farmers have gotten used to utilizing agricultural apps in affluent countries, where on-farm chores are largely automated.
They see the value addition in the tangible outcomes that come from farming apps that optimize resources, save time, nurture the soil, and more. Numerous applications exist now that assist farmers, producers, and large agricultural corporations in gathering important data, managing crops, viewing fields from above, and developing clever ways for process optimization.
Benefits of Mobile apps for Agriculture:
In areas with a weak ICT infrastructure, farming apps serve as an information enabler. Smartphones are becoming more and more accessible, enabling marginal farmers to access active marketplaces to buy necessary tools as well as download ready-to-use practical manuals and learn from them.
Farming apps act as an information enabler in places with a poor ICT infrastructure. With the increasing availability of smartphones, marginal farmers can now access active markets to purchase the instruments they need as well as download ready-to-use practical instructions and learn from them.
Large-scale sensors can be deployed on the field for individuals with sizable farm holdings, and app dashboards can access the data collected by the sensors. According to the nature of the sensors, the analysis may include data on, among other things, nutrient deficiencies, failed crops, and pest-prone areas.
Through a smartphone app that is compatible with geographic information systems (GIS), farmers may learn about best practices for managing their land to maximize crop yield.
Types of apps for Agriculture
Sharing Information Between Individuals
For a tightly knit community of farmers, information-sharing groups can be developed through mobile app development. Democratizing information flows can be advantageous to everyone because the circumstances of the soil differ from one region to another.
Agricultural Loan Lending
An app with a financial focus might provide not only information but also loans or other forms of financial aid. It might even result in the development of an online market for inputs like seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, and on-demand labor.
Farming Business Store
It is quite opportunistic to offer an auctioning platform where food farmers could obtain fair pricing. Businesses that purchase food may be able to save time and effort by submitting bids, winning the auction, and paying farmers well if they have a large network of farmers who have signed up for the platform.
Applications for Forecasting
Many publicly accessible sources of weather data forecast changes using both publicly accessible historical geographic records and government satellite data. You can move on from this. Mobile devices’ built-in gyroscopes and barometers can be utilized to collect data for weather forecasting.
GPS Tracking
The human eye can hardly distinguish between the various ground elevations and assumes that the world is flat by default. Once the crop foliage reaches a particular height, it becomes impossible to study the topsoil conditions. Farmers can use GPS trackers to direct their efforts toward leveling particular areas. To increase yields, geo-fencing can analyze crops in a particular area and communicate vital performance metrics. Technology can be utilized to create exact furrows as well.
Management Apps
Farms with cattle benefit greatly from custom application development. At every stage of the operation, the software can be utilized to record, process, and recommend the area that needs improvement. According to their business model, farms can be divided into breeder, feedlot, dairy, or industrial meat processor types of operations. These programs can digitize farm management tasks and save a lot of money.
In which way these apps can help farmers?
ChatBots
Chatbots, whether they are automated or human-assisted, significantly contribute to the success of a business. It is a key component of any programme that seeks to create a two-way dialogue with users. A chat window would enable farmers to publicly discuss current concerns or submit fresh findings regarding anything farming-related, whether it be local farming networks or consulting services. Answers could be pre-fed to the app if they are not human-aided, and the free-mium app model offers expert involvement on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Synchronization of Drones
With its promises of significant profits, the commercial drone market is one that doesn’t hold back. Agriculture alone claims a sizable portion of drone installations in the US. The possibilities for automation and time consumption are endless with drones or unmanned aerial vehicles. For field surveillance, targeted spraying, and pest identification. Farmers can even assess drip irrigation excess damping and water leakage by mounting them with infrared cameras. Farmers would undoubtedly value and want a feature like drone sync and remote control through applications.
Weather Forecasts
You can still incorporate it as a supplementary feature into a larger programme even if it isn’t a stand-alone application. The effort would be worthwhile even if you would need to work with an app development company to create a comprehensive mobile app with ancillary features that have a significant impact on farming.
Informative Guides
It is not surprising that most farmers are against casual crop experimenting given the thin profit margins they often enjoy. But wouldn’t it be useful to have a ready-to-use encyclopedic guide for various crops in case they do succumb to temptation. First-time producers of a crop can greatly benefit from having a part of your farming app dedicated to useful information. More importantly, if they make good profits, you will draw natural attention from others as opposed to word-of-mouth recommendations. It would be even great if you could provide a list of well regarded agricultural items together with reliable distributors and their contact information.
Machine Vision and Cloud Storage Support
That standard video conferencing is not at all interesting. Anyone who has a Google Duo, WhatsApp, or Skype Mobile can make a free video call. Real-time image processing and machine learning would raise this feature to the pinnacle of achievement. It is referred to as machine vision by software developers. Farmers should be able to upload photographs for the AI-powered backend to evaluate in order to identify potential pest invasions that have not yet reached a mature enough stage. The novice farmer could physically scan his crops and take the necessary precautions to save what was left of them.
Wrapping Up
It is essential to keep up with this era’s daily advancements. It is simplifying our life. Additionally, the agriculture industry is not losing ground in this. Additionally, it is advancing in terms of cutting-edge technology. By employing these types of applications, which provide them with a wealth of information, farmers are able to flourish and earn more money. They use weather forecasts to help them plan their defenses against storms. The mission of Nakshatra Technohub India Pvt Ltd is to create and identify emerging trends in technologies and applications to support the agriculture industry.
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