Application of mobile phone-based system for improved crop production recommendation in arusha, Tanzania

Abstract

Agriculture is a dominant activity globally as without which, food would not be produced, consequently depriving human development. Despite the massive role of agriculture in food security, its growth in crop production in Tanzania is being threatened by various challenges including limited access to agricultural information. This study focused on developing a mobile phone-based application for improved crop production recommendations. The study survey involved a total of 156 simple randomly selected respondents in Arusha district to assess whether or not they know how or can use mobile phones to search for internet-based agricultural services as a base for developing a mobile phone-based agricultural information app, and the data collected were analyzed by tableau software. The results show that about three-quarters of respondents possess smartphones and nearly one-third (32.7%) of all respondents use internet-based platforms to search for agriculture information. In terms of the specific need for a well-structured system such as the use of agriculture apps that would quicken access to agriculture information, 75.6% of all respondents said that they would appreciate having it. Also, about 80% of all respondents indicate the readiness for such platforms if availed online for the facilitation of processes in accessing agricultural information. Following these results, a Rapid Application Development (RAD) model was used along with software specific for the development of a mobile app and environments such as Android Studio, PostgreSQL Database and PostGIS to develop an android application. The developed mobile application takes into consideration soil types of different locations found within the Arusha district. Moreover, the app provides the farmer with information concerning soil type found in a specific location. Finally, a testing survey from the farmer’s acceptance concluded that this mobile app was accepted to be used by the farmers. Thus, the developed app is recommended for further testing and where possible, improvement on wider coverage and more functions that farmers will need in the future.