A Web-based Portal for Ornamental Plants and Flowers in Arusha City, Tanzania

Abstract

There is a wide collection of invaluable varie-ties of ornamental plants and flowers available for sale by vendors in Arusha city contributing to local employment, and food security. Horticulture in Tanzania is dominated by small scale farmers in Arusha that contribute to about 70% of the produces in the sector. However, there are challenges that need to be addressed including; inadequate information for the development of the sector and livelihoods of the vendors. The information on the varied species of ornamental plants and flowers are mainly undocumented and not digitized. This limits access to the scientific community and the general public bringing on these varieties in Arusha a growing conservation concern. The other challenge is that the small-scale vendors have limited visibility to regional markets and international market places which hinders their business growth. On this study, a Web portal was developed for inventory, mapping and digitization of the various species of ornamental plants and flowers as a solution to above challenges. Data collection was conducted using various data collection techniques such as; Interviews, observations, Questionnaire (Open Data Kit) and re-viewing numerous research papers in seven wards of Arusha city where the vendors grow and sell a number of species of ornamental plants and flowers. Both qualitative and quantitative methods mentioned above were deployed to provide insights on the ornamental plants and flower business operations. For the survey, 70 varieties of ornamental plants and flowers were gathered and arranged categorically in terms of taxonomy and usage and uploaded on the portal. The portal developed indicates the potential to help stakeholders find plants’ and flowers’ varieties infor-mation, images, and sales location online, the vendors will be able to advertise their products on the portal and conduct business with customers online. In addition, it will also help Arusha City Representatives with baseline information on the sector to make informed plans and decisions.