The world is advancing towards the digital arena, and it is no surprise that mobile technologies have touched the traditional sphere. Agronomists, also called farmers, are open to innovative and productive technologies to bring transparency in the system and help them harvest their best.
Agriculture plays a prominent role in a nation’s economy and GDP, and it is the time to empower the farmhands of nations by implementing smart and digital agriculture into it.
Statista reports that smart agriculture’s global market value is forecasted to reach around 26.76 billion USD by 2021. Farmers need to get real-time information in the agriculture and allied sectors to reap maximum benefits from it.
You might even wonder how the agriculture sector needs to access weather information, market information, monitor plant health, etc.
Let’s deep dive into the topic and watch the real scenario of how opposites attract technology and agriculture.
How have mobile applications reshaped the agricultural world?
Mobility has transformed almost every sector, and agriculture has become one of these categories where mobile agriculture applications have become an integral part of the farmers’ life.
Boston Consulting Group reports that 300 million Indian consumers are expected to be online by the year 2020, in which half of the newbies are expected to come from rural communities.
It is undeniable to say now that cheaper handsets, the spread of wireless data, and evolving customer preferences will drive rural penetration and usage.
Have a look at the mobile app benefits in agriculture that an agribusiness owner can enjoy:
1) Weather Forecast:
With the help of mobile apps, farmers get prior information about the climate. It can help them ensure their crops if they know it’s a rainy day or a scorching day.
An agrometeorological application, “Havamaana-Krishi,” provides information to the farmers about the weather and the short-range weather forecast. They can adopt timely agriculture operations to save their crops from adverse climatic conditions.
The forecast gets updated every day, and necessary emergency updates are also provided, mainly known as “nowcast.”
2) Treatment of Disease
Like humans, crops are also prone to disease. Farmers can connect with a specialist via video calls to know about the treatment. Here, the farmhands do not need to step outside and can get treatment for the infection.
Krishi Video Advice mobile app provides advisory services related to agriculture with smartphones, mobile apps, and tablets. The Kisan Call Centre expert helps in bridging the gap by giving advice based on the crop images. All a farmer needs here is a smartphone with 4G connectivity, and the queries will resolve in minutes.
3) GPS Tracking
Agri market is an application developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in India to keep the farmers abreast of the crop prices. This app can help the agronomist get the crops’ market price within 50 km of the device location.
It encourages them to avoid distress sales by automatically capturing the location of the person using mobile GPS. The application is available in Hindi and English, and the price of Agri commodities is sourced from the AGMARKNET portal.
4) Get the Soil Nutrient Status
Farmers need to have a uniform report of the soil fertility to take corrective measures in case of any deficiency. The Ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare has developed a mobile app named Soil Health Card (SHC).
The app tracks all the data when the “location” is ON. Details like land details, crop details, and fertilizer details are entered, and the results get fetched.
It gives the soil nutrient status and provides advice on the fertilizer dosage and soil amendments needed to maintain soil health in the long run.
5) Know about the technologies
Wonder what farmers will do by updating themselves with technologies, but yes, this know-how proves to be helpful for these farmhands. In 2016, the Union Agriculture Minister launched an app named Pusha Krishi, which aims to help farmers get information developed by IARI (Indian Agriculture Research Institute).
This application helps the farmers to know about the new varieties of crops developed by the ICAR (Indian Council of Agriculture Research). They give vital information about the resource cultivation practices, farm machinery, and implementation techniques, which will increase the farmers’ return.
6) Check the latest Agriculture commodities mandi prices
Digital Mandi, an app developed by AppKido, helps the end-user check the latest agricultural commodities mandi price across different states and cities. The farmers can browse through various commodity categories and state categories.
The app is designed with a smooth UI and UX so that the farmer can easily browse prices in different states and mandis. The user can copy the mandi price of the commodity and share these on social media and generate revenues after that.
7) Helps the farmers switch to organic farming
Agriculturists today are heavily dependent on genetically modified seeds, chemical pesticides, and fertilizers. To promote and support organic farming, an app known as “Kheti Badi” is developed to help farmers switch their chemical farming to an organic one.
This app is currently available in four languages(Hindi, English, Marathi, and Gujarati).
8) Know about the Insurance Policy of the crops
Agriculturists can harvest the best of mobile apps technology and a big thanks to the government who launched an app named “Crop Insurance.” It aims for speedy disposal of claims with a significantly less amount of premium.
It helps the farmers find complete details about insurance cover in their area, coverage amount, and loan amount in case of a farmer. The application comes with a premium calculator where the farmhand can get the sum insured’s details, premium details, and subsidy details of any notified crop in the notified area.
Keeping in mind the language issues of farmers worldwide, the app takes input in the regional language. It can be conversed by filling translated text in a web form available at http://www.farmer.gov.in/insurance/appTrans.aspx.
Final words
Digital agriculture full of smart applications has provided the farmers with space to sell products and boost the overall business performance. The advent of smartphones has given birth to m-agriculture applications for farmers to access crucial information from production to marketing.
If you are also looking to develop such mobile apps for the agriculture sector to serve their specific needs, hire mobile app developers in India.
In case you have any queries regarding them-agriculture apps, get in touch with the top mobile app development companies in India to clear all your doubts.
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