USE OF MOBILE DEVICES IN AGRICULTURE

AGRICULTURAL sector is among the most important business sectors in the world since it is the main food supplier.

However, agricultural sector is one of the business sectors that have been left aside interms of the application of new technologies.

According to a study conducted by (Jain et al., 2014), “agricultural information system needs to be developed based on the mass communication technology such as mobile systems. It is also noted that localization and native language of farmers are the concerns to be incorporated into the systems”.

The afore mentioned study suggests also that farmers “need specialized informationfor their crops and cultivation techniques but it is not always easy to findit. More specifically, agricultural practices need precise and accurate information to be disseminated promptly to farmers so that better decisions such as managing farm fields, making continuous and scientific changes in theirproduction systems and grabbing advantage of market opportunities can be made(Jain et al., 2014).

Extending the aforementioned approach we can include also the provision of governmentalservices as a means to better administer their interaction with governmental agencies. Stakeholders involved in the agricultural sector are progressivelyusing ICT technology and sometimes with remarkable proportions.

In the reality, research conducted in 2011 in USA demonstrated that farmers are rapidly adopting smartphone technology and, in fact, are making greater use of the devices than does the general public. The research results showed thatfarmers are utilizing smartphones more as a working tool and less for entertainment(Agriculture.com, 2011; USA, 2013).

Smartphone Apps for agriculture

There are many agriculture smartphone apps on crop prices, weather conditions,inventory levels and innovative farming techniques and machinery. For example,in Australia some samples include tracking and managing livestock, monitoringcalving, managing water points, managing irrigation, talking between machinery,remote performing of roles such as unloading grain, monitoring sensors incrops, marketing produce, estimating and mapping yield, performing assubstitute tools (such as spirit levels), calculating area, mapping soil typesetc.

However, apps specifically for agriculture are still limited. Up to now, the most dominant app is the apps related to weather(Roberts and McIntosh, 2012). Other apps related to record keeping and accessing agricultural news and technical information (Lorimer, 2012). Digital technology and agricultural expertise and knowledge have been merged, thus an assortment of smartphone apps according to the needs of farmers has been evolved.

These apps can be grouped into the following main categories, namely agriculture management information apps; agriculture information resource apps; agriculture calculator apps; agriculture news apps, weather apps and government apps. Inthe following some examples are given mainly from USA and Australia.Agriculture Management Information Apps: Applications that are included in thiscategory are in a great deal mobile extension of an operational managementsystem or a farm.

This group of apps includes smartphone tools to help make in field calculationswithout having to head back to the home office. For instance, farmers can based on where the grain markets are currently trading (e.g. Farmer’s Partner).

Also, farmers can measure the maturity of a crop by viewing current and past growingdegree days data of farm’s location (e.g. Growing Degree Days). Farmers have the ability to obtain local, personalized information that is crucial for theirfarming operation (e.g. Growers Edge).

Farmers can search for used farm equipment via categories or a selection of other criteria such as price, year (e.g. Landwirt Used Farm Machinery Search).

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